COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – There are a lot of questions and discussion in recent days surrounding the status of the Dickey’s Barbecue Pit restaurant at the corner of U.S. 12 and Michigan Avenue in Coldwater.
A hand written sign on the locked door says the restaurant is “closed due to non payment to workers”.
There has been a lot of chatter on social media about the restaurant with some unkind comments about the quality of service and the food in recent months since there was an ownership change but it’s not clear as of this time if the closing is temporary or permanent.
An attempt to call the restaurant on Tuesday was unsuccessful as no one answered the phone and a recording said the voice mail box was full.
Dickey’s has been operating at its current location at 445 East Chicago in Coldwater since November of 2013.
Under previous ownership, it got a high recognition from their corporate office about a year ago when the store was named a Brand Champion member for January of 2021.
Best wishes to the former employees, who worked hard to keep it running in the face of adversity, and for putting up with the uncaring attitude of the owners.
So I put that up for a good reason. The new owner who does not live locally purchased the place on what looks to me to be questionable intentions. The store stopped paying vendors a while ago and the gentleman owns 16 other businesses. Be is knowledgeable on cost of operations and is a skilled businessman. He called me to take the store over and in a ten day period I could get no help unless I paid cash daily because he had stopped payment on employee checks, accusing and having the general insinuation that he was being stolen from. I believed for a period that was the case. When I got in there I saw the cash situation. There was very little cash. No deposits made. I took money out of pocket for things and all the owner wanted was sepsis and sales. The smoker broke. My own paycheck was no good. No money was put in towards repairs. I had no clue what was going g on. I ran out of cash paying workers by the day and buying food and used my own money. Hand smoking meats in the oven all night because i couldnt keep it going and i couldnt leave because the smoker wouldn’t stay hot so the meat had to go back and forth between smoker and oven . No trucks would deliver from past due bills. I literally didn’t go home for three days. And I gave a check for a new locks the owner wanted later finding out the account was canceled and he did not reimburse me after promising he would. so I’m probably getting in trouble for that. When i ran out of cash and was not able to perform even close to satisfactory in my ipinion from exhaustion, the health inspector shows up and cites me for a cooler on the line that didnt work. We put bin of ice in it with cabbage slaw and pickles. He shut me down for that. It is not a violation.. the food temp was more than adequate. I had just served lunch with what I had since i went home fonally to sleep,and still the place looked pretty good. The two workers i had for the day had really sabotaged me as far as food prep. Pretending to make food while I was doing other stuff to open then not touching the foods requiring prep. It didn’t add up. The owner kept blaming me for the low sales. When he asked for me to send the paperwork….all the paperwork…i became suspicious. I looked at old statements and found that the owner had signed for old food bills of 15oo to $2000. And I was failing because I could not keep food for a week shopping 300? He was aware that I’d not have tIme or energy or money enough to succeed. It was the worst experience of my life. I cried. Finally I realized if I could work 2 jobs and intern and attend school and graduate with a 4.0 GPA, HAD 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE, and I was there 22 hours a day, I’d say the failure was not mine. I did my best because I was grateful that the place was willing to give a girl with a record a shot. Then I read their (dickeys)privacy franchise notice and policies. I looked at the paperwork again. It’s a ponzue scam hidden under the protection of the owners right to privacy. The bills been shifted from owner to owner with multiple names and account holders, changes to the name and address, and shifts of ownership and land assignment. There were bank statements dating back to 2013 and from what I saw the business was promoted. Bills not paid but investors paid back, loans shifted, and the place ran into the ground for a cheap sale or total shutdown with no physical ownership except the equipment- which gets sold with the store. The loans and debt get sold with the store. But nobody knows who the owners are. And the employees at this stage of the business cycle are not a priority. The end of a ponzie soaks up every penny out of the store for deposit and between the no staff. No food, and my exhaustion, as well as no money to fix equipment or shop for products and supplies , it quickly became impossible without help to continue business. Then my food order finally came. It was not the order I sent. And supplies were inadequate. I called the owner and he accused me of being irresponsible and needing my hand held to be a manager. I asked for the payroll money he promised and he said he wasn’t paying another penny. My couple employees that stuck it out without cash pay were not getting paid and I found out he never made good on the bad checks from the previous crew.im out about 2 grand and am just coming back from a really hard time not getting pandemic relief and I just got in a house. Spent a year in a camper after losing everything. And he knew darn well that I was not meant to succeed. The fact that myself and the employees before me hung on as long as we did must of been infuriating. He was not there to help us at all and neither was corporate. Ive spoke to them 3 times. I still have the van and new keys and nobody cares. Ive had it closed since saturday, when i wrote that on the door for the sake of my coworkers and friends who were taken advantage of. They were waiting for the store to die and squeezing every penny until it did. And to dickeys corporate I’d like to give a big eff you for being so clever as to welcome felons into your fold to have someone to blame in this little scam of yours. Well some of us know how to read. And some of us would like to receive our pay. But you’re big corporate. You always win at the expense of the ones you pretend to help. This birds for you.