Six decades and counting

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Couple carries on legacy at Prospect Dairy Bar

Prospect Dairy Bar owner Carol Jones mixes a milkshake at the restaurant Nov. 19. The milkshake mixer is the only remaining original piece of equipment from when the restaurant opened in 1953. Jones and her husband, John, have owned and run the restaurant for the past 30 years. –LUKE MARSHALL
Prospect Dairy Bar owner Carol Jones mixes a milkshake at the restaurant Nov. 19. The milkshake mixer is the only remaining original piece of equipment from when the restaurant opened in 1953. Jones and her husband, John, have owned and run the restaurant for the past 30 years. –LUKE MARSHALL

PROSPECT — A handful of people were eating at the Prospect Dairy Bar shortly before lunchtime Nov. 19. Old Coca-Cola ads and pictures of classic cars hung on the bright pink walls and children’s pedal cars from the 1950’s hung over the ice cream bar.

Carol Jones, owner of the restaurant, walked out into the restaurant and greeted many of the customers by name.

Carol Jones, 64, said in the 30 years she and her husband John, 68, have owned the restaurant they have had many repeat customers.

“We’ve seen people who came in when they were kids and now they have kids. Over the 30 years a lot has changed,” Carol Jones said.

The restaurant was originally opened in 1953 by Olive and Vincent Visockis, who also owned a dairy farm along Route 69.

“I believe they used the restaurant as an outlet for some of their milk and ice cream,” Carol Jones said.

The Joneses, who moved to Prospect in 1971, frequented the restaurant and got to know the Visockis family.

“One time Olive came over and said, ‘How would you like to own a restaurant?’ I looked at her and said, ‘I never even worked at a restaurant, let alone owned one.’ But it was a good deal and it was close to home, so we decided to buy it,” Carol Jones said.

The Joneses officially took over the restaurant on Nov. 1, 1984.

“It was something of a catastrophe in the beginning. Our first breakfasts we would get notes back with them saying, ‘This is the worst breakfast I ever had,’” John Jones recalled.

Carol Jones also remembered some difficult times at the beginning.

“The first day I was taking a pie out of the oven and it collapsed in my hands, all over my hands. I got burnt. So that should have been an omen to leave, but I didn’t,” Carol Jones said.

Instead, the Joneses quickly realized they needed to hire a good cook to help get things in order.

Hiring a cook wouldn’t be the only change they would make.

When the Joneses took over the restaurant the menu featured ice cream and only hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner, Carol Jones said.

They scouted out the menus at other area eateries.

“I think it’s something I myself would like. If I go out for dinner I don’t want a hamburger or hotdog. I’d prefer a meat and potatoes kind of dish,” Carol Jones said. “We started with a lot of homemade dinners — meat and potatoes, meatloaf, chicken, shepherd’s pie. And we kept with that and that seems to really work.”

The Joneses also wanted to attract families with children so the restaurant began offering children’s meals served in a paper classic car container which comes with candy and a toy.

“That was something I started. I was looking for something to attract more children,” Carol Jones said. “Being ‘50’s themed I thought the cars would fit right in.”

While the restaurant tries to keep the feel of the 1950’s style for the customers the Joneses have updated and expanded much of the original restaurant. The only original piece of equipment in the restaurant is the milkshake maker, according to Carol Jones. The shakes themselves are still served in the original canisters they were when the restaurant first opened.

“John has rebuilt the mixer a couple times. That’s the only real tradition we kept on,” Carol Jones said.

Carol and John Jones have owned and run the Prospect Dairy Bar, which opened in 1953, for the past 30 years. –LUKE MARSHALL
Carol and John Jones have owned and run the Prospect Dairy Bar, which opened in 1953, for the past 30 years. –LUKE MARSHALL

The restaurant also has a painting on the wall from a local artist, Edi Harrison, who painted it in the 1950’s. The painting depicts what the town looked like at that time and includes the Town Hall, the Congregational Church, St. Anthony’s Church, a typical looking house from that time and the Visockis’ dairy farm.

Carol Jones feels one thing that has kept the restaurant in business for more than six decades has been the people’s loyalty to their town businesses.

“I think, for one thing, the people in the town kind of like to go to the establishments in town,” Carol Jones said.

Over the years, the Joneses have seen the town grow from about 4,000 residents to over 9,000 people.

“It helps because we have a traffic light out there now. So the traffic light slows traffic down so they can look over and say, ‘Oh, a dairy bar, let’s go see what they have,’” Carol Jones said.

In addition to celebrating 30 years of running the Prospect Dairy Bar the Joneses have something else to be thankful for this year.

“We just paid the last mortgage payment on the Dairy Bar; 30 years and we just made the last payment,” Carol Jones said.

After the Joneses celebrate by taking a vacation somewhere warm they will both return right back to work and don’t show any signs of slowing down any time soon.

“Right now the future is unclear. I can’t picture either one of us being retired. We don’t know what we’d do with ourselves,” Carol Jones said.