The former Atlanta Bread Company restaurant building on Champaign’s bustling South Neil Street corridor has been purchased by a familiar name in the ice cream business.
Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy Store plans to open in the facility by July, Oberweis president Joe Oberweis said. And it won’t be alone: the building will have two food brands combined in one. That Burger Joint, a fast-casual burger/shakes/fries concept that the company founded in 2012, will be there in tandem.
“We’ve been looking in Champaign forever to find a location that would work for us,” Oberweis said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We’re pretty excited.”
It’s no accident that the company chose to put this brick-and-mortar location in Champaign: the family bleeds orange and blue.
Joe Oberweis, the fourth generation of the family business, is a 2000 College of Business alumnus. His parents and two siblings are also alumni. The company isn’t new to the market, however; it has offered home delivery of its products in the Champaign-Urbana area since 1997, he said.
The Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy Store serves a traditional fountain menu which includes a wide variety of sundaes, shakes, and malts. Cones and dishes of ice cream are a staple. They also have smoothies, coffee drinks and soft serve.
That Burger Joint‘s selling point is that offers a high quality product in a quick serve framework, with fresh ingredients such as angus beef at a fair price. Its website says it is “designed to take you back in time to when your dad used to wrangle burgers at the backyard family BBQ.” And attention parents: there WILL be a drive thru, for both product lines.
“It’s new for us that we will have drive thrus that serve both concepts,” Oberweis said. “But we think that will be good for the business and good for our customer.”
Atlanta Bread Company closed abruptly in early August and the building has sat vacant since then. Locally, Guth and Associates represented Oberweis in the real estate transaction.
