By MARIDEE LAWSON

Published: Saturday, November 29, 2008
Updated: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 11:05 PM CST

A Farmington landmark will be closing as early as Dec. 20.

Hunts Dairy bar will be closing after 52 years of service to the Farmington area. It was opened by Pete Hunt in May of 1956 and has done a lot of business through the years.

Hunts is owned by Pete’s son and daughter-in-law, John and Nancy, who have been running it for years. They started the Park Hills Hunts in 1979 and then sold it to John’s brother Dave in 1981 — and Dave still runs it.

“It’s been a long time, and it’s just time to retire. With the economy and winter coming we figured this would be the right time to close,” John says. He also said there has been a few local people interested in buying it.

Hunts owners have had a lot of people work for them through the years and one regret they have is not having pictures of everyone that worked there. “In the summers I couldn’t ride my bike through town,” John remembers, “If I got within three blocks mom would call me into work.”

John was raised at Hunts Dairy Bar. He worked for Dairy Queen for two years before they opened Hunts, when he was 12. He also flies a plane for Ameren and is out most days flying.

Hunts now has eight full time employees and two part-timers working two shifts.

The Hunt family and workers have had many memories over the years ... from the streakers of the early 1970’s to an assassination attempt on the wrong John Hunt. During one very busy shift a bomb threat was called in and the worker, Ruby Babb, took the call and kept working. An hour later she looked up at the clock and remembered the threat. Nothing came of it but it became a joke through the years.

And auxiliary police used to work traffic control on busy nights. Hunts was one of Farmington’s first drive-ins. The building and parking lot has had a lot of changes through the years. Many kids would sit in the parking lot as others cruised through town.

“We take burgers home at night sometimes and they just aren’t the same. We don’t change the seasoning or do anything different. Its just the atmosphere,” says Nancy.

Hunts has made the top ten lists of Southern Living and Midwest Living, and was rumored to have made KSHE’s best top ten hamburgers.

“You come to remember the small funny things that have happened through the years when you are getting ready to close,” Nancy remembers. “Parents of kids that have worked here come up to us and say ‘You see our kids before we do.’”

Both John and Nancy said that they will miss their morning cheeseburgers. It’s a routine to come in and fix burgers before starting to work. They’ve tried to get as many ingredients as they can locally. They get fresh hamburger every morning from Farmington Meat and Processing.

Business has started picking up as people are hearing that they are closing. They have been rumored to be closing many times before ... because of sickness, divorce and winning the lottery twice. But they were only rumors.

It’s the staying open that John remembers most. “Mom would see a car coming down the street from (as far away as) Cozean Funeral home and wouldn’t close, as long as cars were in town it was open,” he tells.

Many employees have lasted a long time, the longest they remember was Shirley Bloom who was there about 23 years. Nancy took over managing the dairy bar about three to four years ago.

The philosophy was don’t change it if they can help it. They haven’t changed much over the years. Nancy said the couple were happy with the products and so were the customers. The only thing they remember changing recently was chicken strips. Several people sampled them and decided on the new ones.

Plans call for Hunts in Farmington to close the Saturday before Christmas. But if people are still there it will probably stay open late.

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