Columbus Business First: Texas barbecue chain ready to debut in Franklin County

<p><a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2016/11/04/texas-barbecue-chain-ready-to-debut-in-franklin.html" target="_blank">Columbus Business First</a> published this article about the new location in Ohio. </p><hr id="[object Object]"><p></p><p>A nationally known barbecue chain is making its way into Franklin County.</p><p><br></p><p>Kelley Millikin, a franchisee for Highland Park, Texas-based Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc., expects to open this month, possibly by late next week, at 3915 Britton Parkway in Hilliard. It won’t be the first Dickey’s in Central Ohio. Another franchisee runs a pair of restaurants in Delaware County, but it will be the first in Franklin County.</p><p><br></p><p>While it might be a new-ish name to many around Columbus, the family owned business started 75 years with a single barbecue shack and grew into a Dallas-area chain in the 1960s before starting to franchise in the 1990s. It stands at more than 560 restaurants in 43 states today.</p><p><br></p><p>“I knew Dickey’s well because every time I’d fly into (Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport), I would stop and eat it,” Millikin told me.</p><p><br></p><p>The 18-year resident of Hilliard is a former Walgreen Co. executive. As that drug store chain cut staff, Millikin took his severance and turned it into a Dickey’s franchise.</p><p><br></p><p>“Did I want to go back into something corporate or do my own thing?” he said. “Now I’m working eight minutes from my home instead of traveling to Chicago every week.”</p><p><br></p><p>Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is fast-casual barbecue.</p><p><br></p><p>“Chop-and-chat,” is how Millikin described it. Counter-ordering has been a staple of the business since Travis Dickey opened the first in 1941.</p><p><br></p><p>Customers order their meat — brisket, pulled pork, chicken, turkey, ribs, sausage, ham — move down the line and pick up sides like mac-and-cheese, cabbage slaw or baked beans. There are sandwiches, platters and salads. The newest menu also has “butcher tacos” – the barbecued meats go onto flour tortillas – and sliders as smaller sandwich options. It sells family packs of meats and sides as well. It does catering, too.</p><p><br></p><p>The Hilliard restaurant does have a carry-out window so customers do not have to get out of their car.</p>