[title type="h5"]Tuesday, February 18, 2014.[/title]
As Mary Ann would tell me the remainder of the day, I could have made the run into town if I had left just a little before my usual time, about a quarter to eleven. A dense fog and traffic restrictions had the Causeway's traffic moving at a relative snail's pace (and you didn't even get hot garlic butter). But by the time I'd get to the bridge, it would have been fully open. How was I to know?
On any other day, this would be no problem. But I have guests in the studio for the Round Table show. Three of them were from the Royal Orleans Hotel. Another was Merlin Schaeffer, one of the owners of Shaeffer and Rusich, a great seafood markets in Bucktown. None of these people had been on the air with me before. It must have seemed funny to carry on a conversation with a disembodied voice. On the other hand, we did this for three months when a broken ankle kept me from walking.
It was just Mary Ann and I at home for dinner. And for once we had a new North Shore restaurant to explore. Dickey's Barbecue Pit is a chain that grew out of a popular joint that opened in 1941 in Dallas. By 1994, it was franchising. The Dickey's in the big mall at the intersection of I-12 and LA 21 is the first in this area.
The entrance looks like that of any other shop in a suburban mall. But one step inside reveals a setup that could have been from the 1940s. It's hard, for example, to determine how the ordering process works. It's sort of cafeteria style, but without the trays. It also reminds me of Mother's.
[caption id="attachment_41366" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Two-meat platter at Dickey's.[/caption]
You walk up to the guy who's chopping and slicing the meats, and tell him what you want and how much of it. Then you move along to a lady who wants to know which sides you'd like. The list of possibilities is makeshift--a bunch of stickers on the glass that separates the line from the kitchen. Then you tell another lady what you want to drink, and you check out.
Amazingly, the whole order is ready by the time you negotiate the payment. It's all self-service from then on. You collect your utensils, napkins, sauce, drink, and free ice cream (more about that in a moment), grab a table, and start eating.
Both of us had two-meat plates with different sides, the better to explore the menu. Chicken, ribs, brisket, and an unusual hot sausage with small islands of cheddar cheese inside were the meats. Beans (great!), potato salad (like cold mashed with flecks of this and that), and cole slaw (just okay) filled out the plates. In between all those things were rectangular, pillow-shaped rolls with pale yellow tops. They looked underbaked, but weren't. And pickles, which I understood were made in house.
There were three varieties of sauce. The hot pepper flavor was very hot indeed. The standard Texas sauce was just about perfect for my tastes, with the sweet, aromatically spicy, and tomato flavors in ideal balance. The third one reminded me of spaghetti sauce.
At the end of the eating, we agreed that this was as good a batch of barbecue as either of us has had lately. And we eat barbecue quite a lot. The prices were a surprise: $11 for the two-meat plate. Quite a bargain.
And there was free ice cream. A soft-serve machine had a rack of waffle cones on the side. Help yourself. I didn't try to get seconds, but I don't think there would have been a problem if I had.
We're already thinking about giving it another look, in case this was just a lucky day. Every now and then, we run into a chain restaurant we really enjoy.
[title type="h5"]Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Covington: 69292 LA21. 985-871-2225. [/title]
[title type="h6"] Yesterday || Tomorrow[/title]
