LAKE PARK — The first drive-through customer at Lake Park’s new Dairy Queen pulled up to the speaker in a black pickup truck at 10:30 a.m.

“This is a dream come true,” said Mitt Patel, co-owner.

The new DQ, located at 1006 Lakes Boulevard, officially opened Monday.

The fast-food outlet, offering grilled burgers, dairy treats and cakes, was two years in the making, Patel said.

“(The COVID-19 pandemic) didn’t really affect our plans, because we started planning for this restaurant in 2021,” he said.

This wasn’t Lake Park’s first whirl with a Dairy Queen; there used to be a DQ on Bellville Road but it shuttered years ago.

Patel and his partner, Varun Thacker, said they had no connections with that past Dairy Queen effort.

The new site employs 53 people, mostly from Lake Park, and has enough room for 96 customers, Thacker said. Every table offers a recharge station for phones and other gear.

The Lake Park store’s cakes are prepared in-house, Thacker said.

The store is open from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. seven days a week, Patel said.