Dickey's BBQ Wheaton - I have my body armor on

With the recent closing of Austin Barbecue, and having recently been a little too occupied to smoke much at home, I was happy to see a barbecue place, Dickey's on my way from here to there, and made the point of stopping by one day. Before I did, I did a little online research and found lots of hate and disdain for the place, so matched with my general dislike of most bbq places, I was not much looking forward to it. In fact, I made so many disclaimers in suggesting this to my lunch companion that she replied by asking exactly why I wanted to go there.

Just because, I guess.

It far exceeded my expectations. So far I have tried both the pulled pork and chopped brisket, and both had good good flavor, good smoke, good bark (the pork in particular) and were nicely cooked overall. As for the sides, the jalapeno beans were good, the fried okra just okay, cole slaw a little sweet and overly creamy, potato salad not so sweet but also overly creamy, and mashed potatoes very real and delicious. Sauce was okay, hard to distinguish between the regular and spicy, since it seems like all they do it throw red pepper flakes into the spicy, so it varied from bite to bite. They have sweet and regular iced tea, brewed, decent quality, but do not have any hot sauce for the okra, which mystifies me.

Two disclaimers - both visits were at high turnover times, one a very busy lunch, and the second was a buffet for a meeting at our office, so I know the meat was fresh off the smoker for the first, and probably also for the second. As with all barbecue, my guess is that if you go at 230p, for example, the meat may have been held and the quality would be much lower. And I think I sense a little liquid smoke somewhere in all that smoke flavor, though I will leave it to those with more sensitive palates to verify that.

Worth a trip? Nah. But much better than average during this barbecue pandemic, and the price is pretty good, too.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit
206 Danada Square W, Wheaton, IL 60189

One more data point - my companion for the first two meals liked it so much, she took her family. Bad decision. Clearly whoever was managing Friday at 6pm was on the B team. Lack of pickles not a big deal, but partly burnt, partly undercooked ribs, and the pulled pork that included one big hunk of fat were so bad her family neither finished their meals, nor would ever go back.

Yeah, all barbecue places will vary based on how freshly out of the smoker the Q is, but this was just crappy work.

So it can be pretty good when the Q is fresh and someone competent is in charge, but the competent part is more hit and miss than it should be.

The meats at Dickey's are always hit or miss. The sides are pretty good. To see them cut away the entire fat cap from a brisket before serving and to measure out exact meat portions screams corporate rather than pitmaster. After three tries, I would visit Dickey's only as a last resort.