Dairy Barn on Oswego’s Main Street closes for winter, owners say more parking is needed

Dairy Barn closed its doors for the winter season Nov. 20 and a reopening date is to be determined as village of Oswego officials work to create more parking in the downtown area.

The ice cream shop and restaurant, which opened in March at 121 Main St. in downtown, was intended to be open year-round, but owners say the shop’s first year in business proved difficult as food and labor costs increased, and much more parking is needed.

Partners Mike Mann and Rick Tollefson founded Turn 2 LLC in 2020, the business which operates Dairy Barn and neighboring restaurant 113 Main, which opened in 2020.

Mann said the decision was made to close the Dairy Barn for the winter season after a drop in customer traffic because of cold weather and a lack of parking near the establishment.

“Once the temperatures began dropping, it became evident that people did not want to spend five to 10 minutes to find a parking spot and then walk another five minutes in the cold,” Mann said.

Mann said what was supposed to be a quick experience has become arduous for restaurant patrons who have to walk in the cold, some from the parking garage in Hudson Crossing development across Route 34 (Washington Street), a busy, four-lane street with no stoplights.

“The Dairy Barn is supposed to be a quick service restaurant where folks are willing to spend 25 to 30 minutes to get their food,” Mann said. “It has been taking them almost half that time just to get to our ordering counter.”

Mann said there are no plans to change the Dairy Barn business model, but there is a need for at least 50 more parking spots on the south side of Route 34 to accommodate their patrons.

Village Administrator Dan Di Santo said the village is working on adding more parking on Van Buren Street and on traffic signals on Route 34 at Harrison and Main streets by next summer.

Di Santo said there will be two agreements on the agenda of next Tuesday’s Village Board meeting that would allow the addition of 17 public parking spaces on Van Buren Street.

Per the agreements, five spots would be added in the Oswego Chiropractic lot on the corner of Main and Van Buren streets and 12 would be constructed in the vacant lot on the southwest corner of Van Buren and Madison streets.

Di Santo said the village also is working with several more properties on Van Buren Street to add parking spaces during the already scheduled construction of a water main next summer.

Di Santo said if all plans get approved, the hope is to add about 50 parking spaces on Van Buren Street by next summer.

Di Santo said crossing Route 34 will also become much easier as traffic signals at the intersections of Harrison and Main streets are scheduled to be completed by June.