Scottsdale’s Polynesian Queen gets a move and a makeover.
Opened in 1964, the one-of-a-kind Polynesian-style former Dairy Queen on the corner of 68th Street and McDowell Road in Scottsdale, Ariz., had, over the years, become an iconic part of the city’s architectural landscape. While small and just one story, its slanted 42-foot-high A-frame roof gave it outsized presence and plenty of fans in a city known for its mid-century architecture and its commitment to adaptive reuse.
Among those fans: Tom Frenkel, owner of Clayton Companies, a local commercial real estate development firm that over the past decade has ventured into foodservice, turning several historic buildings into restaurant operations. Their self-developed concepts include three Fate Brewing Company brewpub locations; The Eleanor, a mid-century-themed brunch spot; and, most recently, Oliver’s Modern American, a concept born of Frenkel’s desire to save that quirky old DQ building, which had sat vacant for many years, from demolition.
Born of a desire to relocate and save a 1960s Polynesian-style building from demolition, mid-century-themed Oliver’s Modern American gave the iconic A-frame structure new life as its bar/lounge area, with new, larger space added on behind for dining. Images courtesy of Kevin Brost
Clayton Companies had empty space next door to the building slated for The Eleanor, part of a 1960s-era retail strip center they were in the process of redeveloping with a contemporary, mid-century modern vibe. Formerly used for parking and a car wash, it had plenty of room for reimagination and reconfiguration. Meanwhile, the owner of the property on which the Ralph Haver-designed Polynesian DQ building sat, just a few miles away, had agreed to give the building away if someone could move it. Frenkel agreed, setting the wheels in motion for a move and a makeover that would give it new life as Oliver’s Modern American.
“We started with the building, planning to move it to that spot to save it but not knowing what we’d actually do with it,” notes Steve Ellefson, managing partner in charge of foodservice operations at Clayton Companies. “We were already planning for the brunch concept and felt another restaurant would add vitality to the center. Parking was somewhat limited, so with one focused on earlier dayparts, we decided to add a dinner concept — something focused on steak, seafood, contemporary American classics, big red wines, etc. — and use that old building as the jumping off point.”
Aline Architecture Concepts, a Scottsdale-based studio with deep experience in adaptive reuse and already part of the strip center’s redevelopment team, was tapped to bring the project to fruition. “It was a very interesting process of looking at this iconic mid-century building, having this other mid-century project a few miles away and bringing the two together,” notes Brian Krob, principal at Aline, which began initial work on the project back in 2019. “We set out to move this old building to a new location, give it a new purpose and also play off of this other existing building that ended up being The Eleanor. We took what had been a sea of asphalt, reconfigured it for a focused parking area and added greenspace for a garden between the two buildings, creating what feels like a little oasis bookended by two complimentary hospitality concepts.”
Thanks to movable glass panels and walls, a large percentage of the main dining room can be fully opened to the patio and garden beyond, creating a breezy, indoor-outdoor ambience.
Actually moving the old DQ building, however, turned out to be more complicated than anticipated. Given its odd dimensions — in particular, its tall, angled roof — picking it up and moving it wasn’t possible. Plan B was to disassemble it, transport it and reassemble it at the new site. But as Aline’s team dug in, it became apparent that many if not most of the original materials were unsuitable for reuse. The project ultimately became one driven more by faithful, precise recreation than actual relocation.
“We physically took the building apart and moved it down the street, trying to salvage the elements of the original framing and whatever materials we could. But on reassembly, we found that a lot of it just wasn’t seaworthy,” Krob says. “In order to save it and preserve the history of the building, we had to bring it all up to current code and essentially replicate it.”
At just 1,000 square feet, the original building was also not large enough to contain the type of dining establishment Clayton Companies envisioned. Ultimately, the strategy became positioning the replicated building, with its soaring A-frame roof, at the front of the property and adding on new space behind it.
Today, that iconic front section serves as Oliver’s bar/lounge. A large, freestanding 27-seat bar anchors the space, which overlooks a small patio area in front and includes booth and cantilevered table seating. Unlike in the original building, where a dropped ceiling obscured the A-frame inside, Aline’s recreation left the vaulted ceiling open to better celebrate the building’s unique architectural character both inside and out. To help dampen noise in the space, wood panels line the vaulted ceiling, and geometric-patterned acoustic tiles along the front wall add both sound absorption and aesthetic interest.
The new space behind the bar/lounge, measuring 3,400 square feet, houses a roughly 1,200-square-foot exposition kitchen with a 15-seat chef’s counter, a wine display, and a 116-seat dining room with a glass wall facing the garden and a second, larger patio along the side of the building. That glass wall can be fully opened, as can a section of glass wall above a banquette on the side of the room, creating an indoor-outdoor vibe. “The main dining room can basically be completely open to the exterior everywhere except along the interior wall, which faces the adjacent property and which is where the kitchen is,” Krob says. “It was a fairly confined box of a space, so it was really important to us to be able to open it up and connect it to the garden.”
The new addition, Krob adds, was otherwise intentionally designed to complement — but not compete with or detract from — the section the development team had dubbed the Polynesian Queen. “Our intent was always to let that historic front section dominate the architecture,” Krob says. “Everything else was done at a lower scale — longer, wider and downplayed in terms of verticality. From an interior design standpoint, a big challenge was to create continuity between those two spaces and seamlessly blend the old with the new.”
Among the unique materials selected was textured gold corduroy fabric used on booth backs in Oliver’s dining room.
Don Draper Meets the Queen
Scottsdale-based design and branding firm Social Design Studio was tasked with meeting that challenge. When the studio was brought onto the project in June 2022, Aline had completed the shell of the space, but the concept had yet to be fleshed out. Simultaneously working with Clayton Companies on The Eleanor next door, Social Design Principal Nicole Herman and her team saw an opportunity not just to incorporate the Polynesian Queen’s history into the Oliver’s Modern American design narrative but also to complement the mid-century-themed The Eleanor.
The Eleanor, in fact, is named for one half of the couple that opened the Polynesian Dairy Queen back in 1964. Eleanor’s husband, Don, was to have been the namesake for the new dinner-focused concept, but the name Don’s was already in use locally. Oliver’s was chosen instead, in part a nod to Ellefson’s 4-year-old son and in part for its appeal as a classic name with contemporary appeal.
“It was a unique opportunity to be able to design and brand both concepts almost simultaneously,” Herman notes. “We landed on sort of a yin-yang approach, with The Eleanor being very bright, feminine and Polynesian, and Oliver’s being darker, moodier and more masculine. For Oliver’s, I pictured a cool older gentleman, a ‘Mad Men’ Don Draper type, sitting in this beautiful mid-century place, drinking an old-fashioned.”
Dining room seating includes booths and banquettes, as well as a section of counter seating facing the exposition kitchen.As the project unfolded, Herman and Lis Populo, environmental designer and graphics specialist at Social Design Studio, focused on celebrating the original Polynesian Queen’s history, and using that history as the foundation for Oliver’s broader mid-century design narrative.
Research unearthed documents and memorabilia from the original Dairy Queen, many of which they had framed and mounted with engraved brass identification plates on two history walls in the space. “We really wanted to tell the story of that very unique front part of the building and give guests the opportunity to understand why it’s so special,” Herman notes. “People who’ve never heard about Oliver’s development story and are just there for dinner can take a look at those walls and realize it’s more than just a really cool new restaurant — it’s also a piece of history.”
One history wall occupies transition space between the front bar/lounge and the dining room, and the second runs along a corridor leading to the restrooms. Framed pieces range from the DQ’s original certificate of occupancy, to recreated hand-drawn architectural sketches, to the owners’ family photos — even a vintage DQ apron from the 1960s. “When you walk back to the restrooms, that whole wall is about the original owners’ family,” Herman says. “During construction, Tom Frenkel reached out to family members, who provided him with some really fun memorabilia and photos. Framed items along the other history wall are more about the building itself and its reconstruction. Those walls are really the heart and soul of the space.”
Just as the Aline team sought to recreate the original building with precise attention to architectural detail, Herman strategically selected materials, furnishings and finishes that, while new, are authentic to the period and channel a moody, mid-century vibe. Colors are muted — gray, dusky blue, brown, gold — and walls are covered in raw, natural materials, including brick and lava rock, which appears both inside and on the building’s exterior. A custom breezeblock feature wall was built behind the host stand, itself an upcycled piece of mid-century furniture.
Tabletops are stained wood, as are the tambour-faced bar and expo kitchen countertops. Booth backs in the dining room are upholstered in textural gold corduroy. And terrazzo flooring flows uninterrupted between the bar/lounge area and the dining room, helping to create continuity between old and new. “It’s all new flooring, but we made sure the aggregate in it was larger so that it has a vintage feel to it,” Herman notes.
Oliver’s bar/lounge, occupying the replicated historic Polynesian-style building, celebrates the original structure’s unique architectural character by keeping the vaulted ceiling open. Wood panels and geometric-patterned acoustical tiles add warmth and help to dampen sound.
Aside from framed items on the restaurant’s two history walls, Oliver’s design overall remains simple and uncluttered. “We did some fun, oversized mirrors in the dining room and bar, but other than that, we really held back on art and accessories, preferring to keep things subtle, clean and understated,” Herman says. “We wanted the materials, the building and its story to be the art.”
Project Team
- Ownership: Clayton Companies
- Managing partner: Steve Ellefson
- Architects: Brian Krob, Brian Laubenthal, Aline Architecture Concepts
- Interior design, graphics and branding: Nicole Herman, Lis Populo, Social Design Studio
- Landscape design: Berghoff Design Group
- General contractor: Kris Rigsby, Paxton Construction
- Electric: Unique Electrical Contractors
- Millwork: Sagra
Snapshot
- Concept: Mid-century modern American
- Location: Scottsdale, Ariz.
- Opened: May 2024
- Project type: Relocation, historic replication
- Size: 4,400 square feet
- Seats: Inside dining, 130; bar/lounge, 71; patio, 58
- Entree price range: $18-$38
- Design highlights: Original Polynesian-style peaked roof; framed 1960s Dairy Queen artifacts and history wall; 30-foot vaulted, wood-lined bar ceiling; geometric-patterned acoustical tiles; lava rock walls inside and out; terrazzo flooring; expo kitchen with counter seating; moody, “masculine” aesthetic; breezeblock host-stand wall; garden-facing patio with movable glass walls; corduroy booth backs; tambour-clad bar face