Dan Pelfrey is a born and bred Texas boy who knows what it means to barbecue Texas-style. It’s is done like most things in Texas — slow.

Pelfrey, who owns three Dickey’s Barbecue Pit franchises in the Tri-City area, has wanted to own a restaurant for many years. When his job with a trucking company brought him to the Tri-Cities in 2012, he decided to introduce the area to the kind of barbecue he grew up with.

He opened his first Dickey’s in 2014 at 122 Highway 395 in Kennewick. The second one opened in 2015 in Richland at 2530 Queensgate Drive. The third one in Pasco is scheduled to open in January on Burden Boulevard off Road 68.

One of the secrets to Texas-style barbecue is the wood used to fire the smoker, Pelfrey said.

“We don’t use liquid smoke of pellets. We stick to the authentic Texas-style barbecue, which is hickory,” he said.

The restaurants slow-cook about 600 pounds of meats a day, including pulled pork, brisket, ribs and chicken and they usually sell out. The menu includes Texas-sized sandwiches served on toasted hoagie or brioche buns, mac and cheese and polish sausages.

Some of the eatery’s specialty side dishes are coleslaw, beefy mac, which is mac and cheese with brisket, and Texas frito pie, which is corn chips with beans and chopped beef brisket topped with cheddar. Bangers and mash are jalapeno cheddar kielbasa in a baked potato casserole.

“My favorite item is the pulled pork sandwich with slaw topper and a side of mac and cheese with fried okra,” Pelfrey said.

Dickey’s is among the largest franchise barbecue restaurants in the country. It was started by Travis Dickey in Dallas in 1941. His sons took over the business in 1967 and began opening more Texas restaurants throughout Dallas and Fort Worth.

Then in 1994, the Dickey brothers started franchising the restaurant. Today, the enticing aroma of Dickey’s Texas barbecue can be found in hundreds of locations across the country.

Pelfrey also caters Dickey’s barbecue for party platters, box lunches, buffets or full service meals. For more information about catering, call 509-396-9898.