LI Dairy Queen Closes Dining Room After Customers Refuse Masks

MEDFORD, NY — If some Long Island Dairy Queen customers stayed true to the fast-food outlet’s tag line when they wanted their grill, they could have been a little bit more chill.

The owners of Dairy Queen in Medford said they were forced to close the location’s dining room to guests only one day into a new state mandate requiring masks inside all indoor businesses that do not check vaccination status.

“We really tried,” announced Michelle Robey in a Facebook post on Monday, noting that it’s a few bad apples who are spoiling the dining experience for everyone.

The dining room was closed due to “repeated non-compliance,” she wrote, adding that management would "not allow our amazing, hardworking team to be harassed and abused simply for following the state’s mandate.”

Robey, who owns the business with her sister, according to a Newsday report, called the dilemma sad.

She went on to say that staff put up signs telling customers that the restaurant is following the new mandate that and masks are required to come indoors. The crew was trained on how to ask for customer compliance and how to offer masks to those who didn't have them, “and tried to be as nice as possible, but none of that mattered,” she added.

"People were rude, disrespectful, and then downright abusive to our amazing team,” Robey wrote. “We will not tolerate it. Our staff is amazing and we refuse to put them in the position of dealing with people (and I use that term lightly) who have nothing better to do than harass the kids who are working hard to make their food and serve them.”

“Verbally assaulting, harassing, yelling, threatening, and videotaping...it is just too much,” she added.

In July 2020, a manager allegedly gave the middle finger to a customer who asked him why he and other employees were not wearing masks and the exchange ended up being videotaped.

Jacqueline Sweet contributed additional reporting to this story.