Dickey's Barbecue Pit : Shane Ables and Stacy Van Dyke Run Four Dickeys Barbecue Pit Stores

This franchise review video features Shane Ables and his business partner Stacy Van Dyke walking through what it has taken to build a four-store Dickeys Barbecue Pit operation. Shane joined the brand in March 2003. Stacy has been part of Dickeys for twenty-six years, starting as a general manager before partnering with Shane to buy stores. The pair bought their first two locations together at the start of 2013 and have since added two more, building a small portfolio that has held up through difficult years for the wider restaurant sector. They are direct about what makes the day-to-day work. Employees come first — not as a slogan but as a working principle. Shane describes his team as a work family that gets the shirt off his back if they need it, and that loyalty is returned in how the team shows up. Customer experience gets the same treatment. Shane likes meeting new guests and asks his team to flag first-timers so he can spend a moment with them. A single smile at the counter, he points out, can flip someone's day and quietly build a regular. He closes on the wider opportunity. COVID was hard on independent restaurants, but he sees that as the moment a strong brand widens its lead. One of their stores has been open for two decades with day-one customers — proof, for him, that Dickeys can be a long, durable book for the right operators.