Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
POUTINE ON THE RITZ
Canadian Dairy Belle upgrades to a new location in Dania Beach
Dairy Belle, the roadside poutine and soft-serve shack popular among Canadian snowbirds, has upgraded to new digs in Dania Beach.
At 312 E. Dania Beach Blvd., the new location replaces Dairy Belle’s aging midcentury stand on Federal Highway, operated since 1998 by owners Gilles and Ritane Grenier. The shop now occupies a stripmall storefront a half-mile southeast of the old Dairy Belle, across the street from the Casino at Dania Beach.
Longtime customers will instantly notice the stark contrast in venues. Unlike its old storefront with faded red-and-white awnings and a walk-up window, Dairy Belle’s new spot, which opened May 9, has the slick swagger of a fast-casual chain, with indoor market lights, stainless-steel beer taps and digital menus on flatscreen TVs.
“It’s triple the size of the old location,” says Francois Grenier, Dairy Belle’s managing partner and son of Gilles and Ritane. “I’m so grateful it’s open because I reached a breaking point with the old shop.”
Running the old Dairy Belle overwhelmed Grenier even before the pandemic shut his shop down. The old stand, falling apart for years, was invaded by termites. Its air-conditioning unit, constantly breaking, made the squat icecream parlor oppressively hot in winter or summer. And it lacked storage, forcing Grenier to store French fries and curds at home. Enough was enough.
“It was that bad,” says Grenier, who closed the old location March 29.
“For the past 10 years we would lose so much mon
ey because we had long lines and only one register. I was exhausted every night. We wouldn’t have been able to move if the shutdown hadn’t let me catch my breath.”
For Grenier, 44, relocating Dairy Belle was key to its survival. The 3,500-square-foot storefront, adorned in aquamarine and orange accents, lets Grenier handle more customers and add frozen treats. The biggest wrinkle: 24 flavors of Hershey’s hard ice cream ($1.89-$4.49), with flavors including cookies and cream, cotton candy and dark chocolate raspberry truffle.
Fresh appearances aside, Dairy Belle’s menu is still all about the poutine and soft-serve. Poutine ($6.99-$15.99), for the uninitiated, is a FrenchCanadian dish of French fries tossed with mozzarella-like white cheese curds and smothered in hot gravy, a gooey comfort-food blanket for locals and part-time Canadian visitors. Want poutine with veggies? The Italian poutine ($8.99-$19.99, with Italian meat and tomato sauce instead of brown gravy) and galvaude ($8.99-$18.99, with gravy, shredded chicken and peas) dabble in the major food groups.
There are still only two soft-serve flavors: vanilla and chocolate – plus, naturally, vanilla-chocolate twist – Grenier says.
Other regional specialties include guedille ($4.29-$5.19), a mayobased salad of chopped lettuce, tomato and onion on a toasted hot dog bun with optional chicken or hard-boiled egg. There’s also hot hamburgers ($10.99-$13.99, with peas, gravy and French fries); hot hamburger caruso ($13.99-$17.99, with spaghetti meat sauce instead of gravy and peas); and hamburger steak ($11.99-$14.99, with gravy, grilled onions, fries and coleslaw).
Customers still clamor for American classics, Grenier says, including all-beef hamburgers ($4.39-$7.19), corn dogs ($3.69), hot dogs ($2.69), beer-battered onion rings ($3.39) and club sandwiches ($11.99-$27.99) with white chicken breast, lettuce, tomato and bacon.