Dickey's Barbecue Pit

Dickey's Barbecue Pit is a Dallas-based barbecue chain that remains family-owned and operates under Dickey's Capital Group. It started in 1941 when Travis Dickey opened a bar in Dallas and sold barbecue from a pit he built out back. His wife handled the front of the house, and the original location stayed open through 2025, making it the oldest continuously running restaurant in Dallas. After Travis Dickey died of a heart attack in 1967, his son Roland took over.

He opened a second restaurant in 1968 and a third in 1969, and over the next 25 years added about a dozen more. Franchising began in 1994. Roland Dickey Jr. became CEO in 2006, and by 2013 the chain had grown to over 300 locations. From 2008 onward, it added roughly 45 new restaurants each year, peaking at 564 in 2017.

In 2012, Technomic called it the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country, and QSR Magazine listed it among the best franchise deals. The Dickey Foundation, originally called Barbecue, Boots & Badges Foundation, was set up in November 2014 to support law enforcement officers and firefighters. Fast Casual included the chain on its Top 100 Movers and Shakers list in May 2014. The first international location opened in 2018 at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi, run by Serenity Hospitality, with a menu adjusted for locals that included smoked lamb and beef sausages.

A second location in Dubai opened in March 2019. In March 2021, a Dickey's opened in Singapore's Central Business District as a ghost kitchen inside a contactless food court. That same April, the chain expanded to Japan with a Tokyo restaurant in the Kamiosaki District of Shinagawa-ku, offering limited dine-in, takeout, and delivery, operated by the Japan Barbecue Franchise Company. By 2021, there were 650 U.S. locations and 300 more internationally.

In April 2022, the chain entered Canada with a restaurant in Edmonton, Alberta. Sales declined and locations closed over several years, dropping to 385 open restaurants in May 2024 from a reported high of 571. Dickey's is a fast-casual restaurant serving beef brisket, pulled pork, pork ribs, Polish sausage, spicy cheddar sausage, hot link, and chicken, all smoked on-site over wood-burning hickory pits. Sides include fried okra, jalapeño beans, green beans with bacon, waffle iron fries, barbecue beans, Caesar or garden salad, macaroni and cheese, corn on the cob, and onion tanglers. The recipes have remained unchanged since 1941.