ABOUT RICO
Rico LLC was formed by William E. Flango Jr. and his son Daniel Flango in 2005. Named after William’s grandfather Enrico Flango. Rico LLC opened a DQ Grill & Chill restaurant on February 10th 2006. It had been William’s dream to own an ice cream store as the Flango family has a history of dairy farmers. William E. Flango Sr. operated a 140 acre dairy farm in Ramey Pa since 1940. William Jr. majored in Food Science at Penn State after working on the dairy farm during his childhood. While at Penn State William Jr. worked at the world famous Penn State Creamery and his love of ice cream took hold. William Jr. would then go on to work for General Foods Corporation, where he would write the formula for, Cool Whip, the internationally known non-dairy topping. William Jr. then moved around the country opening plants to mass produce Cool Whip.
After his career in Food Science ended, he decided to open a DQ Grill & Chill with his son Daniel. Daniel was currently working as an Operations Consultant for International Dairy Queen, and helped develop the DQ Grill & Chill concept, opening the first franchise unit in Illinois in 2001. It was in 2005 that the idea of Daniel and William Jr. opening their own DQ was born. The DQ Grill & Chill has been in operation for 17 years and continues to serve Hamilton NJ.
Daniel E. Flango, Partner
Daniel has a Hospitality Restaurant and Institutional Management degree from the Indiana University Of Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1997, he worked for Chili’s Restaurants and then went on to open restestauants for Dairy Queen in 1999. He opened 80 restaurants in his six years with IDQ, and after they offered him his chance to own his own DQ in 2005. The formation of Rico LLC began and the DQ Grill & Chill opened 2/10/2006. Daniel has owned and operated it for the last 17 years.
John Labar Jr., Director of Operations
John has been in the restaurant industry for over 20 years. Having managed Burger King and Chic Fila restaurants. He joined Rico in 2013 as a manager and rose to general Manager in 2016. He was promoted to Director of Operations in 2022, after William Flango Jr. retired.
Robert Labar, General Manager
Robert has over 20 years in the restaurant business managing for Burger King and Chic Fila. He joined Rico in 2021 as a manager and was promoted to General Manager in 2022.