All good things eventually must come to an end as the famous local Whitewater restaurant Frosty’s closed its doors officially.

Ernest and Marge Staebler opened Frosty’s in 1981 with a goal of satisfying Whitewater locals and town visitors.

The couple remodeled the building in 1986, and in 2003 they expanded on it by adding a drive-thru and 30 feet to the building.

“It definitely brings a bitter sweet feeling to be at the end of our long run,” Marge said.

Frosty’s typically would close its business for the slow winter months and reopen in spring.

“The city is planning on reconstructing a lot of the main roads on the east side of town which would really affect our business so we made the decision to close the restaurant,” current owner Keith Staebler said.

Keith, son of Ernest and Marge, took over the business in 2003.

Keith said he had to deal with a lot of road construction issues in 2009 when Hwy. 12 was closed. The closure of the highway greatly impacted the sales of the restaurant.

“Its was rough not having the cash flow being generated mainly due to a lot of the road construction that summer, however it was something that needed to be fixed,” Keith said.

Margie said location played a huge role in affecting business for Frosty’s over the last few years, especially with the recent road construction plans.

“You would think it wouldn’t make too big of a difference, but it did,” Margie said. “It was the percentages of customers taken away from us that hurt us and Frosty’s business.”

City Manager Kevin Brunner said the Staebler family business had strong ties with many loyal customers and played a huge role in impacting the community.

The restaurant officially closed the day before Christmas. However, Keith opened the diner for a few hours on Christmas day to treat a special close family of theirs who never got the experience of eating Frosty’s signature food.

“One of the kids got to experience his first real taste of custard ice cream in Frosty’s that day,” Keith said. “Despite all the hard economic factors and issues to owning and running a restaurant, it’s moments like that where you can’t put a price tag on.”

Brunner explained the impact of losing the Staebler’s business as second to none.

“The Staeblers were good people [who] represented our community well and their restaurant in our community will be missed,” Brunner said.

The restaurant’s growing popularity through the years transformed the small diner into one of Whitewater’s popular landmarks, Brunner said.

“It was a nice alternative restaurant for people to enjoy burgers and custard and I’m sure it will be a loss to many,” Brunner said.

Brunner said the location issue impacted the restaurant’s ability to continue its success.

“Frosty’s was very isolated from commercial business due to its location on the east side of town, which most likely affected sales,” Brunner said.

The Staeblers said Frosty’s has potential to open business again in the future, but would plan to relocate the business to the west side of town where there are higher volumes of traffic.