Family-owned Texas barbecue spot to replace Rich’s Britches in downtown Skokie

Robert Fitzpatrick was raised around barbecue. 

It was his father’s trade for 53 years. As the pitmaster of a barbecue joint he owned and operated outside of Dallas, Fitzpatrick’s father regularly cooked and smoked cuts of beef brisket, pork rib and chicken breast over logs of hickory until he finally retired in 2004. 

Fitzpatrick went on to serve in the U.S. Navy, and his work in the civil service brought him to Illinois, where he spent years as a tech consultant. But all the while he was still selling batches of his father’s barbecue sauce online and considering continuing on his father’s legacy as a pitmaster, he said.

Now, that dream will become a reality. 

Fitzpatrick has officially purchased 5017 Oakton St., the longtime home of Rich’s Britches, a family-owned but now closed clothing shop in downtown Skokie and plans on transforming the storefront into Dewey’s BBQ Market come this fall. 

“Almost everywhere I’ve been, it was in the back of my mind that this is what I should be doing,” Fitzpatrick said. “What I know about barbecue and what my dad taught me about barbecue, there’s probably less than 500 people in the country who know how to barbecue like I know how to barbecue.

“So I think what I’m about to open in Skokie will be the best barbecue in the United States, and if I thought I was just as good as Mission Barbecue or City Barbecue, I wouldn’t even do it. But I think what I’m about to open will be an experience for my customers.”

Plans for the new establishment include a 70-seat dine-in restaurant and 30-seat waiting area for those looking to order takeout and deli-style meat by the pound. 

Brisket, sliced pork, smoked ham, hot links, polish sausage, chopped beef and rotisserie chicken reportedly will all be on the menu, as will a number of classic barbecue sides, like coleslaw, fried okra, and mac and cheese, and desserts, like apple pie, sweet potato pie and pecan pie.

After opening The Spare Rib in Greenville, Texas, in 1951, Fitzpatrick’s father, Dewey Fitzpatrick Jr., bucked the era’s separate-but-equal law doctrine by allowing white and Black people to eat together in his restaurant — one of his earliest accomplishments, Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick Jr. continued to further race relations and work to integrate school while operating The Spare Rib; he and his restaurant were featured by a number of local newspapers and even National Geographic magazine in 1980, Fitzpatrick said. 

The Spare Rib didn’t play music, in part to avoid it becoming known for playing either white music or Black music. But one of the reasons Fitzpatrick wanted to move his online version of Dewey’s BBQ market back into a brick-and-mortar store was to replicate the experience of eating at a Black-owned Texas barbecue restaurant, including the tunes.

“Not only will it be the smell, but also the feel-good music of that time — the Motown sound, the Philadelphia sound, the Chicago sound,” Fitzpatrick said of his new place. “I want customers to both enjoy the music and the food of 1960s northeast Texas African American barbecue.”

Part of what will set Dewey’s BBQ Market apart from other barbecue restaurants will be its custom barbecue pit. Fitzpatrick has hired an architect to replicate the unique design his father devised for The Spare Rib’s grill, which allows for smoke to be cooked into the meat without drying it out, he said. 

Fitzpatrick will also honor his father’s tradition of smoking any meat that customers bring in for $2 a pound. In Texas that often meant smoking wild animals like raccoons, but Fitzpatrick said he looks forward to smoking halal or kosher butchered meats. 

While Fitzpatrick said he’s excited to utilize the skills he’s gained from working in a variety of fields, he never quite felt comfortable working in corporate America or the civil service. 

So he was encouraged to take up barbecue in part by his wife of 26 years, whom he first met when they were both living outside of Dallas, he said. Fitzpatrick recalled recommending she stop by The Spare Rib. They were married two years later, and she has told him ever since that barbecue was what he needed to be doing, Fitzpatrick said. 

So after spending the last 11 years in Illinois, Fitzpatrick started looking for places in the North Shore to open Dewey’s BBQ Market and was encouraged by a former fraternity brother — Trustee Keith Robinson — to consider Skokie, Fitzpatrick said. 

Given Skokie’s welcoming community, the “proactive” help he’s received from village staff and the synergy of replacing one long-family owned local business with another, Fitzpatrick said he’s confident Dewey’s BBQ Market will make a name for itself in Skokie and the surrounding area. 

“The community of Skokie is excitement — it is kind of on the rebound. It’s diversity,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think the community is embracing an establishment like this and I feel like I will reward it with a place of notoriety in Cook County.”

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