Dallas-based Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which describes itself as the “nation’s largest quick-service barbecue,” plans to open half a dozen new restaurants in Western Washington over the next six months.
All but one of those will be in the South Sound area.
Dickey franchisees are planning restaurants in Olympia, McKenna, Puyallup’s South Hill, Bonney Lake and Bellingham, said the restaurant chain Thursday.
The sixth restaurant site is still to be chosen. Franchise holders Gary and Megan Depping say they’re looking at Orting, Graham and Tacoma as a possible site for their new Dickey’s.
Some of those restaurants at already chosen sites could open as soon as next month, said Dickey’s spokeswoman Amy Vercher. Others, still in the planning stage, could take six months before their soft openings, she said.
Dickey’s now has 166 locations in 38 states, not including Washington. The family-owned barbecue chain is expanding rapidly, opening, on average, one new restaurant every six days, the company said.
Dickey’s restaurants in this area will be the first in the Northwest. The company has no restaurants in Oregon, Alaska or Montana.
The Dickey family opened its first restaurant in Dallas in 1941. The family still owns that business.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663 john. gillie@thenewstribune.com
