by Tim Froberg
Get the scoop on ice cream entrepreneur
Steve Liebzeit doesn’t drive a refrigerated truck stocked with summertime treats and equipped with a bell. Call him the “Ice Cream Man,” though, and you will get a hearty laugh from Liebzeit and no disagreement.
Most of Liebzeit’s life has revolved around the tasty frozen dessert. The Hilbert native grew up in a family ice cream business and is a third-generation Dairy Queen owner. Liebzeit owns the two Appleton Dairy Queen locations, at 2000 S. Oneida St., and 1813 N. Richmond St.
“Dairy Queen is my life,” said the 70-year-old Liebzeit, who has no intentions of retiring any time soon. “I don’t know what it would be like to not be here. People come here to be happy. That’s why I love this business so much.”
Liebzeit has owned the two Dairy Queen stores for 44 years. He purchased both in 1981 from his parents, Merlin and Erna, after working as an employee in the family business.
“Steve is a big history buff,” said Nicole Foth, who has worked as Liebzeit’s general manager since 2017. “Ask him about any past war and he’ll tell you all about it.”
Ask Liebzeit about the ice cream business and he will happily reflect on his family’s long and distinguished history with Dairy Queen. Appleton Dairy Queen recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The Start of a DQ Legacy
The Liebzeit family owned the very first Dairy Queen franchise in Wisconsin. On June 4, 1950, Merlin and Erna opened the doors of the current Oneida Street location.
Dairy Queen, however, wasn’t simply a clever name that Merlin and Erna created for their new drive-in business. The name had been used by the Liebzeit family for several years prior to the opening of their original store.
The Liebzeit’s Dairy Queen legacy started in 1913 when Henry Liebzeit—Steve’s grandfather—opened a cheese factory in Sheboygan County. Henry purchased a second cheese factory in Calumet County in 1925 and named it the “Dairy Queen Cheese Factory.” The factory came with cheese and ice-cream making equipment, along with a milk-bottling machine.
“It had all the extra equipment that other cheese factories didn’t have,” Liebzeit said. “They would process and bottle milk and would send the crème down to Fond du Lac to get butter made. And they made ice cream.”
In 1941, Henry and his wife, Lydia, opened an Appleton eatery known as the Dairy Queen Restaurant at 730 W. Wisconsin Ave. Three years later in 1944, Henry, Lydia, Merlin and Erna launched a partnership known as the Dairy Queen Products Company: a family-run dairy products company that included the Dairy Queen Cheese Factory. The partnership was formed after a consultation with an attorney, which allowed them to secure all legal rights to the Dairy Queen name in Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, a chain of ice cream-restaurant franchises also named Dairy Queen began to grow across the country. The signature soft-serve ice cream formula was initially developed in 1938 by an Illinois man named JF McCullough and his son, Alex. The first Dairy Queen ice cream shop opened in Joliet, Illinois in 1940.
By the late 1940s, there were more than 1,400 Dairy Queen stores and the chain eventually wanted to move into Wisconsin. However, the Liebzeits held Dairy Queen naming rights in Wisconsin and weren’t about to get pushed around. The family initially denied the Dairy Queen chain from establishing businesses in the Badger State.
Negotiations followed and the Liebzeits relented. They agreed to allow the Dairy Queen name to be used in Wisconsin in exchange for the right to establish Dairy Queen drive-ins in Appleton. The Liebzeit’s Oneida Street location became the first Dairy Queen in the entire state and the family added the Richmond Street location in 1953.
In the early days of Dairy Queen, the sale of ice milk—also known as low-fat ice cream—was illegal in Wisconsin. The Liebzeits and other Wisconsin Dairy Queen operators only sold ice cream that was higher in fat, but in 1952, they successfully pushed for the law to be changed.
“Well, we’re a big dairy state, right, and the farmers had a lot of pull back then,” Steve said. “They didn’t want ice milk to be sold because there was less milk fat going into it. It wasn’t until 1952 that my parents could sell the real Dairy Queen product.”
The Liebzeits sponsored many promotions at their Appleton Dairy Queen stores in the 1950s, including appearances by Miss Wisconsin and Miss Appleton along with a special visit by a circus elephant named Bertha. One of the most popular Dairy Queen promotional devices was the arrival of the Dilly Wagon in the 1960s, which used motorized vehicles to sell DQ Dilly Bars along with other items.
Today, there are 4,147 Dairy Queen stores across the country—including 125 in Wisconsin—and more than 6,000 worldwide. Dairy Queen is the world’s largest chain of soft-serve ice cream stores with restaurants in 19 countries. The company’s stores are operated under several brands, but all bear the Dairy Queen logo and carry the DQ signature soft-serve ice cream. Dairy Queen is currently headquartered in Bloomington, Minn.
“It’s a good feeling to be a third-generation owner,” said Liebzeit. “I’m very proud of the business and the work my grandfather and dad did to get it established.
“I’ve always said that running a business is like keeping a flywheel turning. There is a lot of work at first to get it going around, but then it’s a lot easier to keep it going.”
Making A Big Decision
Prior to purchasing the family business, Liebzeit attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and received his bachelor’s degree in 1976 in foreign languages-literature and business. He was working in the family ice cream business and contemplating whether to attend the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona for further business training when he was given a life-changing opportunity.
“I had never been a (Dairy Queen) partner—just a salaried employee—and had two options in life,” said Liebzeit, a 1972 graduate of Fox Valley Lutheran. “I could either go to international business school or buy my dad’s stores. I remember sitting in my parents’ house at the kitchen table and filling out residency papers for international business school in Arizona and my dad coming up to me and saying, ‘Well, are you going to buy the Dairy Queens or not?’ I mean, there it was.”
Liebzeit went the Dairy Queen route. He chose to keep the business in the family by purchasing both stores and never looked back. He kept both at the original locations, but didn’t pinch pennies. He renovated and enlarged them, making them model Dairy Queen franchises.
“After I bought the stores, my dad used to travel around the country going to Dairy Queen conventions and selling coupon books,” Liebzeit said. “He would always refer to my stores as the most beautiful Dairy Queens in the system. They were both designed by myself and my sister, Betty.”
What did Liebzeit learn from Merlin?
“He taught me a couple very important things,” Liebzeit said. “One of the big things dad taught me was fiscal conservatism. I never bought anything that I couldn’t afford to pay for. Don’t spend money that you don’t have was one of the lessons he taught me.
“Another thing I learned from him is to treat your employees well. He was all about treating his employees like family. We’re still doing that today and have had great success with it. Our employees are happy people and we go out of our way to do what we can for them.”
Foth agrees. She has worked with his Appleton Dairy Queen stores since her teen years.
“Steve is a great guy to work for,” Foth said. “I think that one of the reasons the businesses have been so successful is because he really doesn’t spare expenses when it comes to the stores.
“We have 70 people on our payroll right now which is the highest we’ve ever had, but Steve just laughs when I tell him that and asks us what we need. He’s a really smart guy and quality comes first with him.”
Focusing On Ice Cream
Many Dairy Queen stores sell food, but the Liebzeits have never gone that route. Instead, his stores focus solely on ice cream products, including their delicious ice cream cakes designed and decorated by Candice Gumm, a highly skilled cake decorator who has won multiple international cake decorating (Iron Tip) contests.
“We’ve never had food,” Liebzeit said. “We just decided a long time ago that, hey, we do this (ice cream) really well. Why bother putting food in? I remember the days when I worked for my dad and we would travel around to different Dairy Queens in places like Rhinelander and Antigo with two-window walkup stores, some of which sold food. We would go in through the back door and the smell was never great. It was like, ‘phew!’”
Liebzeit was just five years into his Dairy Queen ownership when the DQ national business spiked with the 1985 introduction of a game-changing product known as the Blizzard. The highly popular, tasty treat blends candy, cookies, fruits, and nuts with soft-serve ice cream for a thick, creamy and flavorful dessert. Currently, there are as many as 17 different Blizzard flavors on Dairy Queen menus, and for years, the Blizzard has been the best-selling DQ product.
What does Liebzeit opt for when he digs into a Blizzard?
“I’m really simple,” he says with a laugh. “I just go for the Oreo.”
Liebzeit believes strongly in supporting his community and has generously given away thousands to charities and worthwhile causes throughout the years. He once paid the funeral expenses of a former DQ employee who had moved out of state because his family couldn’t afford to do so.
“He doesn’t like to advertise it, but Steve donates a ton of money,” Foth said. “He’s donated to the Ascension Foundation, the Children’s Miracle Network and different children’s hospitals. His mom was hard of hearing so he donated to a smaller charity called ‘Hear in the Fox Cities.’ He makes sure to give back to the valley that has taken care of him and his family all these years.”
Liebzeit still works five or six days a week and doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
“Everybody asks me, ‘Why are you still doing this?’” Liebzeit said. “I always say: ‘Because I don’t know anything else.’ One of my biggest assets is my GM, Nicole Foth. She’s very personable. She’s great to our employees and their needs and problems. I’ve become more and more of a philanthropist over the years.”
When he’s not dealing with Dairy Queen matters, Liebzeit, an animal lover, enjoys spoiling Boo, his beloved black pug.
This article was originally published in the August 2025 issue of Appleton Monthly Magazine.
