Place: Dickey's Barbecue Pit
Lunch: Three Meat Plate (chicken, Polish sausage, spicy cheddar sausage, barbecue honey ham), mac and cheese, barbecue beans, soft serve ice cream cone, Coke
On the rare occasion I pop into a Dickey's...a fast food format barbecue joint...my first question is "What are you out of today?" Because they're always out of up to half the meats.
Me: "What are you out of today?"
Girl: "What do we have today? We have a special on pulled pork, and..."
Me: "No no no, that's not what I asked. What meats are you OUT of today?"
Girl: "Oh! Uh..."
Guy: "We're not out of anything."
Me: "Really? That's the first time that's ever happened to me at a Dickey's."
Everybody laughs.
The trick must be to come in early for lunch. Dickey's smokes meats at each location daily. I may have always come in at dinner, so maybe when they run out of the daily allotment, that's it. Still, what other fast food chain has ever been able to get away with having up to half their menu not available during normal operating hours, let alone four hours before the place closes? You're throwing money away, Dickey's.
So I take advantage to try the chicken and ham, which they're always out of. And I get my usual Polish sausage, which is my Dickey's favorite. Naturally, they give me the spicy cheddar sausage instead and I complain, thus why my Three Meat Plate is in fact a Three Meat Plate with Bonus Fourth Meat in a Side cup. Ever see that episode of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" where they're at a barbecue place and she tries to order meat as a side? "WHY CAN'T I HAVE MEAT AS A SIDE?" I just fulfilled your wildest dream, Honey Boo Boo.
The spicy cheddar sausage is actually pretty good too. You could go with a Two Meat Plate and get both sausages and be all sausage happy.
The chicken and ham are disappointments. They don't give you a quarter chicken piece like a real barbecue restaurant would. They give you slices of chicken breast that have an artificially smoky flavor to them.
Among the sides (you get two with your meat plate), their mac and cheese is a highlight. Not sure why, but it's really good.
Dickey's also has proper pebble ice and free soft serve ice cream cones, practices I highly approve of.
My longest vacation of the year is winding down. Got around to all the Christmas light displays I usually go to. Caught up on movies. Went to a concert. Ate all the food. Replaced the coat I left in Vegas.
Really nothing left to do but go home.
