One Family's Craving By: Steve Weiss We've now traveled several generations down the fast-food highway. It's getting harder to recall how today's big quick-serve corporations got their start. Generally there was just a solitary entrepreneur with a single modest unit who yoked his family's fate and fortunes to a modest and quickly served doughnut, taco, or burger. Today there are still some large and well-known quick serves, like White Castle, Chick-fil-A, and In-N-Out, that remain controlled by the heirs of the individuals who founded them. But for the most part the tradition of the family-owned fast-food chains has suffered the same fate as  black-and-white TV—extinction. You wouldn't know this, however, from a discussion with Roland Dickey Jr., president and third-generation proprietor of Dallas's Dickey's Barbecue Pit. The 85-unit Dickey's chain was started in 1941 by a family with restaurant roots stretching back into the 19th century and is still closely held today. It didn't even sell its first franchise until 1994 and operated less than 30 stores as late as 2004. Readily admitting that the family has taken its own sweet  evelopment time, Roland has declared his intention to aggressively seek qualified franchisees and to become the nation's first coast-to-coast fast-casual barbecue chain. Roland readily talks about the absence of a leader in the national fast-casual barbecue segment and about the passion that is attached to barbecue ("Who gets  emotional about a sub sandwich?" he asks). Of course, that passion is viewed by some as an obstacle to nationalexpans ion since there are strong regional  tastes and traditions in American barbecue. Roland, though, doesn't quite read it that way. He stresses that items such as brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken, and sausage are basic to all barbecue operations and that national exposure has led to blendings and borrowings that have resulted in national barbecue preferences with "not as much regionality as before." Long past the need to experiment with and tweak its acclaimed menu fare, the company remains loyal to and diligently promotes the core menu items and recipes that have been with the family since the very beginning. Dickey's message and goal is one of satisfying the barbecue crave. The customer who walks through the Dickey's door is rarely there because of a discount or new item. The key to success, Roland says, lies in honoring the vested culinary heritage while casting a contemporary eye at all other factors of the business. "You never change your core competencies," Roland says, "but you have to stay with the times and be relevant to multiple generations. That stodgy Old West barbecue style is so the opposite of what we are doing today. We're all about a fresh environment, upbeat staff, contemporary colors, lots of energy, and Southern rock playing in the background." Likewise... Read More