The Dairy Bar is celebrating 75 years in business in 2025. Pictured are business owners Emily and Jeff Harryman, their children Eileen (10) and Hazel (7), joined by their niece Josie Mosinski (14). (Andy Hallman/The Union)

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FAIRFIELD – Dairy Bar in Fairfield is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2025.

The business was previously affiliated with Dairy Queen, but dropped the affiliation in the 1960s and has gone by the name “Dairy Bar” ever since. Owner Emily Mosinski Harryman has managed the business the past 18 years, and is the third generation in her family to run it. Her mother Roberta Mosinski ran it for 10 years before her, and her aunt and grandparents ran it before that.

Harryman grew up on a farm northeast of Fairfield. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, but when her mom’s parents and sister wanted to give up the Dairy Bar, her mom stepped in to give it a try. Roberta had worked at the business before, but Harryman said working at and managing are two different things.

“I don’t think you ever realize what you’re getting into until you actually do it,” she said.

Harryman began working at the Dairy Bar when she was 14, and her first task was dipping dairy bars. Now her own daughters are on the cusp of becoming the fourth generation in the family to work at the Dairy Bar. Emily and Jeff’s daughters are Eileen, 10, and Hazel, 7.

“It’s kind of fun because I worked with my mom and grandparents, so getting to work with these guys is pretty special,” Harryman said.

The Dairy Bar is open six months a year, from mid-March to mid-September, but Harryman refers to that half year as a “busting six months” because of how many work is needed to run the business. That includes all the work that happens behind the scenes, like placing orders, cleaning, record-keeping and managing of employees. The Dairy Bar employs 10 people, most of them high school students.

Jeff is one of those people working behind the scenes. He’s responsible for taking the machines apart to clean everything inside. Eileen and Hazel help by making dairy bars and restocking supplies like the lids and spoons. Hazel said it doesn’t hurt that she gets to eat ice cream, too.

Another family member working at the Dairy Bar is Harryman’s niece, Josie Mosinski, who is 14 years old and going into her freshman year at Fairfield High School. Harryman said she normally hires high-schoolers older than 14, but she made an exception for her niece, and because she’s a good worker who “always has a pretty smile on her face.”

“It feels really cool knowing that this is in my family,” Josie said about working there.

Josie’s parents are Bob and Molly Mosinski. Emily said Bob and their brother Mark worked at the business some when they were growing up, though they mostly did outdoor chores.

“They would mow the yards and stuff, but they were farm boys, so they worked on the farm for the most part and I got the cushy job in here,” Emily said.

Harryman said her busiest time of the year is the spring just after opening, because the public has missed her ice cream treats for six months. Perhaps surprisingly, hot days are not good for business because people don’t want to stand in the heat to wait for their orders, but business usually picks up in the evening.

Harryman said there haven’t been that many changes to the Dairy Bar over the years, except for moving a few things around inside to make it run more efficiently. The products the company serves have remained consistent, too. All dairy bars are made by hand, and that’s always a chore employees are thinking about in between customers. Harryman said their best-selling product is the wizard, and on a busy day, they can go through 30-plus gallons of ice cream. Over the course of a season, they make at least 13,000 dairy bars. The Dairy Bar offers other food, too, like a loose meat hamburger, chili dog and barbecued beef.

Harryman said she’s excited to celebrate the 75th anniversary with the community. She likes hearing from older customers who went to Roosevelt Elementary School next door, and then getting an ice cream cone after school.

“Some of them say their parents would send a note saying it’s OK for them to walk over or work,” Harryman said.