Ollie's Frozen Custard — Restaurant in DeKalb Township

On 8/16/25, my husband went to Ollie's to get us some custard. My husband is a black man and he was the only person of color in line. When he got to the window to place his order, he heard a boy employee quietly say to the girl, "You should refuse him service." When he started placing his order, the boy immediately stated they didn't have any peaches (part of our order). The girl asked the boy if he could go check, but he just kept saying, "No. I'm pretty sure we don't have any." My husband was disgusted by how he was being treated, so he got out of line and called me. We both agreed he should just leave because we weren't going to buy anything after that, but I was FURIOUS. So I (a white woman), called Ollie's to ask if they had peaches. "Absolutely! We have peaches!" I was told by the guy who answered the phone. So I asked if he had just told a man at the window that they did NOT have any peaches, and if he told his co-worker that she should refuse him service. He never denied it, he just said, "Umm...I don't know." And, "That's odd..." And, "That's interesting..." So, I explained how offensive that behavior is, and when I asked if he was the only male employee that day (in case it wasn't him), he hung up on me. Everything he said and did showed me guilt. So, I called back, told the whole story in a voicemail for the owners, and left my name & number for someone to get back to me.

I hadn't heard from anybody, so I called Ollie's again on Tuesday (8/19/25). The teenager who answered the phone gave me the owners' phone numbers. They are a husband & wife, and I ended up speaking to the husband.

To be clear - I told the owner from the beginning that we are NOT looking for any sort of compensation, which is typically assumed in this type of situation. We don't want money, or free ice cream, or anything. All we want is for Ollie's to make sure that no person of color has to be subjected to this kind of disgusting treatment at their window again.

So I told Mr. Owner the whole story again (he had not listened to my voicemail). To be fair, he did apologize, he said they don't tolerate any form of racism, and they have a zero-tolerance policy. All of that sounds great, but he also gave me every excuse and explanation he could think of for why we could be wrong.

Maybe my husband misheard. (He didn't.) Maybe it was a joke. (Not funny.) Maybe it was an accident. (Nothing about it was an accident.)

He said they have cameras in the store that also pick up audio, and they would investigate what happened. I thanked him, and asked that he get back to me to let me know what they find. He said he couldn't tell me anything, but I should just trust that they'll handle it. Um...NO. I've been around long enough to know that when businesses police themselves, it never works.

On 8/25/25, Mr. Owner called me and said they had completed their investigation, and they concluded the following:

They don't believe the situation was race-based. They believe the employee said, "You should cancel his order." Not, "You should refuse him service." The employee has been reprimanded.

I explained that there's nothing else it could've been about (other than race). Nothing happened to justify refusing my husband's order. His answer was - the reason his employee wanted to cancel the order was because he was ordering the large size Blasts, and those are harder to make. WHAT?!? It's insulting that we're actually expected to believe that. When I asked if the problem employee still works there, he said he couldn't tell me. All he said is, "My staff has changed." I know what that implies, but my husband knows what happened at that window that day because he was there. The owners were not.

The bottom line is that Ollie's did, in effect, refuse my husband service that day by lying and saying they didn't have what he wanted. I guarantee the owners have never been denied service because of the color of their skin, but anyone who has, knows how it feels. It messes you up for a long time, and that's what it's done to my husband. We will...

Stopped for what I thought would be a fun treat for the fam while out doing errands...I was wrong. First, the order-taking process was painful. Being our first time here, we were asking questions about the menu that took way longer than it should have to get answers. Asking the same question 3 ways only led to frustration and we just ordered something. The bill seemed high, but I was already invested in the process and thought maybe the end product would erase the initial frustrating experience. I was wrong. One of us ordered a S'mores sundae which consisted of 98% toppings and 2% ice cream. It actually got thrown away because it was like eating broken up graham crackers with a spoon which was not the desired experience. Another one of us ordered a malt which was subpar and lacked some of the ingredients that were to have been part of it. The last of us ordered a cone...originally thinking frozen custard was soft serve and this was NOT the case here...they put aside the disappointment and chose a flavor that sounded good, only to be told that the extensive list of flavors on the wall were not flavors that could be ordered for a cone, but they were pre-packed pints. Instead, they needed to order from the list of 3...count them THREE...flavors that were written on the board below it. Beyond frustrated, at the multiple failed attempts at ordering our ice cream/custard, they picked a flavor, we paid the bill, and waited for our treats. The cone ordered was sloppily prepared, half falling off the cone, and wasn't even very good. I know that our standards for ice cream/custard are probably higher than others, but this experience still upsets me when I think of it. I wasted $20, 20 minutes, and all the excited expectation when I saw how well this place was reviewed....

So, first time here so first impressions...

Two stars are all they earned today. The menu shows large for the malts. Simple. At the angle I was trying to read the menu in their drive thru, I thought it said Large (22oz). I went with that. Got to the window, I asked the young lady for a large malt. She kept asking "Quart?". I repeated myself at least 4 times, "Large" for which she asked "Regular?"

So, I get this dinky cup and I asked, "Is this the large?". She said, "No, the regular. If you want large it will be another $0.32.". bashing my head against wall

Now, if that wasn't bad enough, we also ordered a large Root beer float. It came in a large cup. But not 32oz, it was 20oz.

Again, on this place's menu board and their web site, it specifies large as one of the choices. Not quart!! An older photo here on Maps says quart.

So, you may want to let your employees learn the menu and the nomenclature you use. Their failure to wish to make things right is poor customer service. If she would've taken ownership for the mistake, my rating would be at least 4 stars and I may have paid to get the large.

The only reason this visit received a 2nd star is due to the malt tasting good. The float was somewhat tasteless. We doubt we'll be back any time soon. But, as usual, we may come back in a month or two to see if we have a...