Photo by Kensie Wallner

Heaven and Hell and the BBQ in Between

By Neil Schloesser
Contributing Writer

Dickey’s Barbeque Pit is a successful chain restaurant that has opened its second store in North Dakota. They obviously know what they are doing because this is their second store in the soulless (as in soul food, hip, cool, not eternal hellfire although I bet Hell makes one hell of a good barbeque) state of North Dakota. I give this preamble because there were things they did well and there were things I would like to have seen done better, but since they are a successful chain restaurant my opinion is likely as inconsequential as a fly on $#!t. That being said, let’s eat.

The restaurant is set up with the kitchen behind a line with a glass counter, a la Subway, and the menu with pictures is above you. This is a brilliant idea since every barbeque place I’ve eaten in has always been a sit down establishment. This is barbeque for the crowd on the run.

The menu is typical of many barbeque restaurants. Get a platter with one or two meats and your choice of two sides. There are also a few meat sandwiches and very reasonably priced children selections for under $5. The sides include things like mac’ n’ cheese, two types of beans, fried okra, coleslaw, and waffle fries. The meats are brisket, ham, chicken, cheddar sausage, and everything else you’d expect to find. I go down the line and I spy bread pudding. I’m partial to a well-made bread pudding so I order a serving and then they offer a vanilla sauce to top the dessert. I may, depending on the taste, have entered a low level of heaven (if Hell has levels, why not Heaven?) My total was $14 and some odd cents for a two meat platter and the dessert.  The drink was extra so I chose water.

The interior is a mix of regular tables and bar tables with high seats. Tables have paper towels on dispensers instead of napkins. The three flavors of Dickey’s barbeque sauce are kept warm near the pop. There is sweet, regular, and spicy. Dickey’s also provides free soft serve. I mention this now because they are all in the same place. And the utensils are cleverly designed to look like the real McCoy, shiny like silver, but they are plastic. The only dish one gets is the plastic tray that holds the food.

I bought the two meat basket. I chose marinated chicken breast, brisket, mac’ n’ cheese, barbeque beans, and bread pudding. My friend got the two meat basket with sharp cheddar sausage, brisket, onion tanglers, and mac’ n’ cheese. All baskets come with a bun.

The meats were great. The chicken was moist and the brisket was tender. The cheddar sausage was great because it had chunks of cheddar. Oftentimes a store-bought cheddar sausage turns out to be a salty, greasy mess but this was excellent. The cheese held its own against the sausage and it was a tad on the drier side. This allows the cheese to retain its shape and prevents the fats from the cheese and sausage from mixing. So there are no complaints on the purpose of Dickey’s, serving good meat, but the sides are a different and entirely sadder story.

The mac’ n’ cheese was average and this is not meant as a compliment. If one is going to serve a well-known dish, I’d like to see something new brought to the dish, otherwise I can make it at home and not spend my hard earned money. I’ve had this exact same dish at countless cafeterias, sometimes worse, but never better. This dish seems to have been perfectly crafted to be average, which implies they spent a lot of time thinking about the dish, but not f**king this dish up is not a compliment. The same goes for the barbeque beans, the barbeque sauce, and their bun. The beans were bland. A barbeque sauce needs depth, needs a flavor profile that goes beyond one note. The beans and all three sauces hit my tongue and it expected a lot more but the only thing they delivered was mild sweet and I’m hesitant to even say that because it was so mild, it was like a single note that is half-assed played. I got some brown sugar off the sauces, a kick from the spicy, and a lot of ketchup from the regular. I tried the regular several more times and it tasted like they emptied gallon jugs of ketchup into a pot, dumped some brown sugar into it and called it good. The sauces, sides, and desserts which included my bread pudding and my friend’s onion tanglers were offensive because they did not try to improve or add anything to the culture of barbeque. They seem to be expertly crafted but crafted to be middle of the road, which makes good business sense as a product that appeals to the lowest common denominator will appeal to the greatest possible number of people but then one ends up with articles like this, decrying the flair-less food.

Dickey’s Barbeque Pit is a fine restaurant. The meat, the reason for the season so to speak, was great and getting my food in a fast food fashion was appealing. Even though the sides were mundane, it is important to note that they were still good, but I personally would have liked to have seen more flavors.

This combination between good meats and average sides will attract people and get repeat business, myself include. There are enough sides that odds are I will find something that I enjoy, and even if I don’t and all the sides are frustratingly well-crafted mediocre dishes, I’ll still eat here because the meat is good and I like the idea of getting my barbeque quickly.

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IF YOU GO
WHAT: http://www.dickeys.com
WHERE: 3402 13th Ave. S; Suite A, Fargo
INFO: Open Daily 11:00 AM – 9:00 PM