A grill & chill landmark

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

Brian Guillory’s birthright was to serve cold ice cream and hot hamburgers.
The only child of Herman and Merlyn Guillory, Brian has spent the majority of his 57 years in and around the family business, the Ville Platte landmark known as the Frosty Inn.
Brian’s career began almost immediately after he was born, as he would spend considerable time inside the popular hamburger-ice cream stand, sometimes even sleeping there.
“We had a little buzzer at the house behind the old location and if we got a busy my husband would buzz me over to come help,” Merlyn said. “So we had a little makeshift box and I would put him in there while I worked and when we would catch up I would take him back to the house.”
It wouldn’t take long for Brian to take part in the family business.
“I worked there every Saturday night for years,’ Brian said. “I started working in there when I was 11 or 12. I was cooking hamburgers even back then. They didn’t want me to be in the front because people would ask is he old enough to cook?”
Brian has been cooking hamburgers ever since.
“I don’t even have to look at what I am doing anymore,” Brian said. “I can do it by feel.”
Brian’s father got into the food service business in 1954 when he took over the operations of the Dairy Delight, also known as Bob’s Drive-Inn, which was located on West Main Street, currently the old building that once housed Theresa’s Dress Shop.
A year later he married Merlyn and she joined him in the business. Herman owned the equipment and the stock but rented the building but he would eventually have his own place. That happened in 1960 when he bought two lots on the corner of Tate Cove Road and Lincoln Road (then still a dirt road) from local dentist Dr. Charles Dupre. The family would build their house behind the inn the following year.
That is where the Frosty Inn, located in a modest 28x18 building, has been serving up burgers and cold treats for the past 55 years.  
“We took five days off a year and that was the holidays,” Merlyn said. “We worked from around 10 a.m. to sometimes one or two o’clock in the morning on the weekends. The people from the Rendezvous Club and another little bars would come by afterwards.”
The Frosty Inn would soon become a popular hangout for Ville Platte teenagers, as kids would come for the Inn’s signature ice cream drinks, like the Whilry Duck (orange pop with vanilla ice cream) and a Purple Cow (grape flavored with vanilla ice cream). Both are still served today.
“We also had a jukebox at the time, just like we did at the old location, and the teenagers would come and eat something and listen to music,” Merlyn said. “They would drink a lot of the Whirly Ducks or the Purple Cows.”
For many years, Brian would spend his weekends preparing meals for many of his classmates and friends. That meant while his buddies drove up and down the strip on Saturday nights, Brian would be behind the grill but that is what he preferred to do.
“Yeah I had to work but I had money in my pocket to spend,” Brian said. “Where they had to watch every penny they had. I had my own set of wheels too where they were using mommy or daddy’s truck to get around.”
After more than thirty years operating the Frosty Inn, Herman and Merlyn decided to hand over the family business in 1993 to their only child.
 “He took part in the business ever since he was little,” said the 82-year-old Merlyn, who sometimes still helps out at the Inn. “He would do what he could do and he had a interest in it. My husband finally said, ‘Enough is enough. I’ve been working long enough.’”
For a brief time as a young man though, Brian didn’t envision himself taking over the business.
Brian went to trade school for two years to become an auto mechanic and worked at Deisi Pontiac in Opelousas for about half a year. He also did electrical work for Norman Vidrine and Jeff Ardoin for about two years.
But he always still worked at the Frosty Inn.
“I looked at my pay check one day and I went ‘I could stay in Ville Platte and make just as much,’” said Brian, who also was a school bus driver for Evangeline Parish for 33 years. “I much rather be cooking hamburgers than working on a hot car.”
As the years have passed, some things have changed at the Frosty Inn. The old marquee with its well-known ice cream cone is long gone. The stand no longer sells potato chips, gum, candy or cigarettes and it is no longer open on Saturdays or Sundays. The Inn also started selling plate lunches about 12 years ago, and still do so between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. every day.
But the Frosty Inn still prides itself on customer service, and serving homemade and fresh hamburgers by hand which will cost you only $2.85 or $3.05 if you want it with cheese. Which is why the parking lot is usually filled everyday with hungry customers. Just make sure you bring cash or a personal check, because credit and debit cards are not accepted.
“A lot of people just like good home cooking,” Frosty Inn employee Sherlen Thomas said. “That’s what people get here.”
“There are a lot of people that come over today that came here years before because their parents brought them or their grandparents brought them before that,” Brian said.
As of right now, none of Brian’s three children having any plans of taking over the family business but Brian isn’t worried about the Frosty Inn’s future. He has no plans of stopping what he loves to do anytime soon.
“If you are doing it for a living and you don’t like it then you are miserable,” Brian said. “I have always enjoyed cooking and always will.”

Louisiane de pres or ‘Louisiana up close’ is a feature series from The Ville Platte Gazette which showcases affordable attractions and establishments that are authentic to the storied landscape of Louisiana. This Sunday: Frosty Inn in Ville Platte. Next Sunday: Champagne’s Swamp Tours, Breaux Bridge