Dickey's Barbecue Pit is located on West Main Street in Salem.

Photo courtesy of dickeys.com

Dickey's Barbecue Pit

• Where: 1419 West Main St., Salem
• Prices: $3.99 to $10.99
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday
• Soda products: Coca-Cola
• Alcohol? No
• Plastic: All major credit cards accepted
• Smoking? No
• Wireless Internet? No
• Takeout? Yes
• Delivery? Only for catering
• Handicapped accessible? The Blue Ridge Independent Living Center has determined that this restaurant is accessible.
• Kid-friendly? Yes. Kids eat free on Sundays. High-chairs, booster seats and kids’ menu available
• Patio seating? No
• Reservations? No
• Live music? No
• Vegetarian dishes: Veggie plate available
• Call: (540) 387-9898
• Fax: (540) 387-9776
• Net: www.dickeys.com

On the menu

The meats

• Beef brisket
• Southern pulled pork
• Sweet pork ribs
• Smoked ham
• Polish sausage
• Spicy hot links
• Smoked turkey breast
• Smoked chicken breast

The sides

• Coleslaw
• Potato salad (original or dill cream)
• Caesar salad
• Cucumber and tomato salad
• Corn on the cob
• Mac ’n’ cheese
• Fried onion tanglers
• Waffle fries
• Fried okra
• Baked potato casserole
• Green beans with bacon
• Barbecue beans
• Jalapeno beans
• Baked potato (counts as two sides)

The past few months have seen a slew of new barbecue restaurants open in the Roanoke area, several of which have been reviewed in this space. Add to that list a new chain barbecue restaurant that recently opened on West Main Street in Salem.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit brings a standardized franchise approach to barbecue. Like an assembly line, you enter the restaurant and place your order in a three-step process.

First, pick your style, meaning sandwich or plate. You then choose whether you want one or two sides with your selection. For plates, which come with two sides, you choose one, two or three meats. You can also choose a rib plate.

For step two, you pick your meat(s), and finally your side(s) -- see the sidebar for the selections.

You may be seated after you pay, and the staff brings your food to the table, though you are responsible for filling up the 32-ounce plastic yellow cup that is yours to keep as a souvenir.

THE VIBE

Dickey's sits in a newly constructed strip mall between Firehouse Subs and a bedding store. Despite this handicap, a corporate design team has clearly attempted to create a down-home barbecue joint with a family feel.

Simple wooden tables and chairs fill the dining room, and a row of booths anchors one wall. The walls are adorned with wood overlay, black-and-white photographs and replicas of antique tools from the original Dickey's in Dallas (established 1941). Empty decorative cans with faux old-timey labels sit on shelves above the kitchen. It almost makes you forget you're in a strip mall -- almost.

THE FOOD

As I have mentioned in prior reviews, barbecue means only pork to me, so I dutifully ordered a plate with Southern pulled pork and sweet pork ribs ($9.99). For the sides, I settled on barbecue beans and baked potato casserole. My wife chose a pork sandwich with okra and green beans ($6.79).

The barbecue is Texas-style, so the three available sauces are tomato-based: Dickey's original, sweet, and hot and spicy. Dickey's barbecue arrives naked, and you get the sauces yourself from the condiment bar. One circumstance I've never encountered is that the sauces are ladled into condiment cups and served warm.

The chopped pork, tasted first without sauce, was bland and lacked character and richness of flavor. One can imagine walking into any of the 85 or so Dickey's locations and finding the exact same taste. Both the sweet and Dickey's original sauces were thin, though I preferred the latter. The ribs were fatty, institutional and oddly cut. I kept finding bones where I didn't expect any.

Dickey's serves up sizable portions of the side dishes, which were for the most part flavorful and pleasing. Great chunks of pork accentuated the homestyle taste of the green beans, and the fried okra was flavorful even though it had been frozen. The okra was slightly overseasoned with what Dickey's calls "foo foo" seasoning. To me, it just tasted salty.

The baked potato casserole is essentially a loaded baked potato in a bowl -- potato sprinkled with shredded cheese, bacon and scallions. It was quite good and would have been even better had I known there was sour cream available at the condiment bar. Alas, the baked beans were fine but dull.

THE SERVICE

The staff at Dickey's was extremely pleasant and helpful. As we contemplated what to feed our daughter, the very nice man taking our order informed us that children eat free on Sundays. When he realized she would not need a drink, he then removed that from our bill as well.

A young lady in the dining room checked on us periodically and removed our plates promptly. Without being asked, she volunteered that the soft-serve vanilla ice cream was free.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Despite best efforts, the food at Dickey's (with some exceptions) still tastes like fast-food replicas of the dishes you wish you were eating. Is the food decent? Yes. Is the service pleasant? Yes. Is the restaurant clean? Yes. Is Dickey's a "destination" restaurant? No.