At 1455 N. Eaton St. stands a local ice cream shop that has been serving sweet treats and smiles to Albion since 1970: Frosty Dan’s.
The business is run by Dan Earl, the owner, who said he has maintained Frosty Dan’s as a “family-run operation” for more than 50 years. He works with his daughter, Kelly Earl, and a team of family friends who make ice cream, milkshakes, malts, sandwiches and hot dogs.
How Frosty Dan’s Began
Dan Earl said he began working when he was 10 years old after his father had the idea to build Frosty Dan’s to teach him how to run a small business.
“He was big into banking, and he thought this is a good way for me to learn about money, banking, how a small business operated back in those days,” Dan Earl said. “It’s a lot different today, but it was a good test of what business is all about.”
Dan Earl added that his father might’ve chosen to open an ice cream shop because he “saw that Albion at the time could use one.”
The business didn’t earn its title until Dan Earl’s older sister, Denise, came up with the name, he said. His parents were insistent that Dan Earl should use his own name, and he said his sister added the final touch.
“She said that it needs to be something cold,” Dan Earl said. “You know, like something really frosty, cold, and then the word just came out. ‘Well, let’s just call it Frosty Dan’s.’ And that’s how it got started.”
Dan Earl said he gets his ice cream from Prairie Farms and Kuster’s, frequently experimenting with combining the products to create his own unique flavors.
“I try things, and if I think things could be better, I mix them together and try to see how it comes out,” Dan Earl said. “A lot of times it’s even better.”
As Dan Earl got older and became a father, he said he needed a place to look after his four kids, and Frosty Dan’s became what his daughter Kelly Earl called her “daycare.”
“Me and my three siblings would come and hang out while my dad worked, and then maybe when I was about 10 years old, I started working a little bit, with filling, cleaning, doing little things,” Kelly Earl said.
Frosty Dan’s and the Community
Dan Earl said he would describe himself as a “social” person, and that he loves “seeing where people go with their future.”
“What I enjoy most would be the camaraderie between the kids that I hire to work here,” Dan Earl said. “The kids that I meet at the store give me a chance to relate to a lot of different people, different cultures, different everything.”
Kelly Earl said she knows “almost every single person” who goes to Frosty Dan’s and has made connections with them. It makes her happy to make other people happy, she said.
“Some people, since I’ve been here for so long, they’ve known me since I was a little kid,” Kelly Earl said.
Albion senior Cadence Easterwood has also been going to Frosty Dan’s since she was a kid; she said the first time she remembers going was with her grandpa when she was four years old. Dan knows her ice cream order, she said, and to her the shop feels “inviting.”
“He likes a lot of the kids around town and tries to support them in the best way that he can,” Easterwood said.
Since technical lecturer in mathematics and computer sciences April Grow moved to Albion, she said she has been regularly going to Frosty Dan’s with her family and loves to “experience it” through her kids.
“I think that living in ways that support the people you care about is important,” Grow said.
Northville junior and member of Alpha Xi Delta Sophie Aheimer is a part of an annual fundraiser with Frosty Dan’s, where sorority members come help at the store for a day, she said. Dan Earl taught them how to work the register and make ice cream, and Aheimer said she felt “lucky” to be able to work with him.
“He’s very pro-Albion, which is awesome, obviously, because we’re such a close, tight-knit community,” Aheimer said.
The Future of Frosty Dan’s
With the new Dairy Queen being built directly across the street, Frosty Dan’s could have competition, which Dan Earl said “can be good.”
“I’d rather them not come,” Dan Earl said. “But since they are, I feel we’re going to be just fine. We still cater more to the Albion College and the town.”
Kelly Earl said Frosty Dan’s is now on DoorDash for people to order online, and they have recently started making sandwiches to increase revenue.
“Maybe we’ll draw some people off the highway, and since we’re right next door, they’ll see Frosty Dan’s and support a local business instead of a big franchise,” Kelly Earl said.
Even before Grow lived in Albion, she said she went to local ice cream shops to support her community.
“I think it’s so important to have something that is of the people and by the people and that is in the community so that we can just support the people that live here,” Grow said.
Easterwood said she is “worried” about the future of Frosty Dan’s, and hopes that the pressure from the incoming Dairy Queen isn’t too strong.
“It feels a lot better to purchase from there than a big company,” Easterwood said.
Aheimer said she thought it was “crazy” that the Dairy Queen will be so close to Frosty Dan’s, but that she will not be going there once it is open.
“I’m loyal to Dan,” Aheimer said.
Dan Earl said that the following of Frosty Dan’s has only increased since he took over because of support from Albion College and the community, and what matters to him most is that he gets to keep his Albion business.
“From day one it was Frosty Dan’s, and it’s still Frosty Dan’s,” Dan Earl said.
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