Tinley Park’s venerable Dairy Palace reached a new audience last month when “Trash Mountain,” a movie that used the 73-year-old ice cream shop as a filming location, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“It was fun,” Dairy Palace owner Kevin Hoffmeister said of his business becoming a movie set. “It was a lot of fun.”
The movie is set for two Chicago-area screenings as part of the Chicago International Film Festival this month, according to the festival’s website, with one scheduled for 5:15 p.m., Oct. 23 at the AMC NEWCITY 14 in Lincoln Park and the other scheduled for 3 p.m., Oct. 24 at the Chicago History Museum.
“Trash Mountain” stars Caleb Hearon, Zooey Deschanel, Jaboukie Young-White, Kyle Marvin and Jacki Weaver, and was directed by Kris Rey. The movie follows a Chicago man, played by Hearon, who travels back to his Missouri hometown to sort through his recently deceased hoarder father’s belongings.
“People were great,” Hoffmeister said. “Couldn’t have been nicer. I wasn’t expecting that, I kind of expected a bit of Hollywood attitude, but none of that happened at all. Everybody was cool.”
The film shoot took place last October, at the very end of the Dairy Palace’s summer season. At the end of the day of filming, Hoffmeister said, Hearon bought Dairy Palace ice cream for the full crew.
“He said, ‘Ice cream for everybody.’ There was like over a hundred people,” Hoffmeister recalled. “Everybody got what they wanted, and he picked up the tab for it.”
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A wide theatrical release date for the movie has not yet been announced. Following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, it had a 100% fresh rating from 15 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Everybody had a good time, I think,” Hoffmeister said. “We certainly did.”
Hoffmeister said when the movie does have its full release, he’d like to take his employees to see it.
“We’ll take all the people that work at the store,” Hoffmeister said. “We’re gonna take them, when the movie comes out, make a day of it and just pay for everybody to go.”
The Dairy Palace was one of several candidates to be the backdrop for the sequence, he said.
“I guess it was like 10 of them, and they narrowed it down to us at the last minute,” he said. “The director liked our place the best.”
Hoffmeister said it was the first time a movie had been filmed in Tinley Park.
“Tinley kind of gave them a little pressure about getting permitting, and it was gonna take 60 days, and I called them and was like, listen, when’s the last time a movie was shot in Tinley Park?” Hoffmeister said. “They said never. And I said well, there you go.”
It’s not too late to grab a cold treat at a local shop that’s getting international exposure. The Dairy Palace, 16760 Oak Park Ave., is open from 2 to 10 p.m. daily. The business usually closes for the winter towards the end of October, depending on the weather, Hoffmeister said.
“If it stays nice, we stay open,” Hoffmeister said. “If you see the yellow lights on, we’re there.”
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