Real Talk with Real Owners - Amish Patel of Sunset Valley, Kyle and San Antonio, TX

It takes a bold entrepreneur to open a barbecue restaurant near Austin, Texas, but Amish Patel is the right person for the challenge. Born in a family of business owners, Amish is a veteran franchisee in California, Florida and Texas.

Amish started his franchising career shortly after college with a well-known ice cream chain. After the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009, he left California to get involved with a different food service company in Florida. Eventually he and his investment partner decided to make the move to the Lone Star State to take advantage of the growing economy. They decided on Dickey’s because of the rapid growth and excellent food quality.

“Austin knows great barbecue, and we relish the competition,” Amish says. “With Dickey’s marketing support, the stores in this area have been successful by using all the community marketing tools available to them. Dickey’s makes it easy to be successful. All I have to do is follow the road map.”

With three stores in the area, including one in San Antonio, Amish has grown his business through catering. He caters for local schools and businesses, but his biggest catering win was with the Austin Film Festival. The festival hosted over 1,000 film producers and directors in 26 theaters. He also catered the Texas Railroad Commission Fundraiser, in which he sold barbecue sandwiches in front of the state capitol, donating $2 of every sale toward the fundraiser.

Reaching out to the community using Dickey’s marketing tools has made Amish successful in the most competitive barbecue scene in the state. With catering at an astonishing 52 percent, it is clear that the system works!