Abilene, TX: Restaurant Carries on Family Tradition
In Abilene, TX, popular barbecue restaurant The Shed has a regional legacy that started almost 40 years ago. In 1989, Hollis and Betty Dean expanded the catering business they ran on their family farm in Wingate into a steakhouse and barbecue restaurant called The Shed. Before the couple retired in 2005, the operation had grown to include locations in Winters and Sweetwater. It was a family affair, run primarily by their oldest grandson, Byron Dean, his brother and cousins.
Byron worked at The Shed as soon as he was old enough to stand on a bucket and help his granddad flip steaks. He worked his way through every role, from dishwasher to manager. In 1997, his girlfriend, Stacie, worked at The Shed as a server, and they were married two years later. They continued to work there until they moved in 2002 to Abilene, about 40 miles north of Wingate.
In 2005, Byron had a construction company and Stacie worked as a registered nurse, but they continued to run The Shed as a catering business on the side in Abilene. It became so successful that they eventually left their full-time jobs and opened their own iteration of the family’s restaurant in Abilene, TX, in 2018. They opened in a shopping center and built a standalone location nearby in 2022, which included a fresh meat market.
Read on to learn why the Deans chose to open their family restaurant in Abilene, TX, and why they think it’s a great place for entrepreneurs to set up shop.
Why did you think Abilene, TX, was a great place to open your restaurant?
Byron: Abilene is home. Stacie and I both grew up here, went to high school at Wylie and have strong ties to the community. We’re raising our kids here, and everybody we know is here. I couldn’t imagine having a business anywhere else. Abilene is just a great place for a business. At the time that we opened, we felt that Abilene needed some good Texas-style craft barbecue.
Why was it important for you to carry on your family’s legacy in your own way?
Stacie: All the barbecue, all of the meat is done the same way Byron’s grandad did it, including his recipe for barbecue sauce. We’ve come up with different sides and desserts, but the actual barbecue is still the same as grandad’s barbecue.
Byron: We use the same recipe on the brisket and the ribs. As far as his legacy, everyone who comes in here knows his name and that it’s a family business that’s been around for years. There’s a huge mural in the hallway with his picture on it honoring my grandparents and what they started in the 1980s. We’re making it ours the best way we can.
What kind of local support in Abilene, TX, did you utilize to start your restaurant?
Byron: The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center (SBDC) was really instrumental in getting this thing going. Stacie quit a great nursing job, I had a construction business, and we went all in on this. It was a huge risk. We heard about the SBDC from a really good friend of ours who had a restaurant who utilized their free services, so we went to see if they could help us get a plan to see if it would work. The SBDC helped us with spreadsheets and told us exactly how many plates we needed to sell each day to pay ourselves, our staff and cover our bills.
How did the Abilene, TX, community show up to support you and your restaurant?
Stacie: As far as the support we have in town, it’s been amazing. Our biggest supporters are probably the people from Dyess Air Force Base. Sometimes, 20 or 30 people will come in and line up. It’s great to see all the airmen, because Dyess is just such a huge part of what Abilene is. We get a bunch of highway patrol guys in, too.
Byron: We get a ton of support from Hendrick Medical Center, too. We take stuff up there often, and they’re huge supporters. The universities – Abilene Christian University and Hardin-Simmons University – bring us lots of business, too.
What would you tell people considering starting a restaurant or other business in Abilene, TX?
Byron: Abilene has the population to support your ideas. If you come up with an idea and see a need, that’s great. The Abilene Chamber of Commerce does a great job of supporting these places, and the building process is very simple and streamlined as far as the permitting and red tape. The city worked with us on all of it. It is minimal as long as you do things correctly, which it is all lined out really clearly.
Stacie: There are lots of large businesses in town that will support small businesses. People here really love to choose local.
This article was sponsored by the Abilene Regional Growth Alliance, a division of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce. The Abilene Chamber is a nonpartisan and nonsectarian organization that advocates for pro-business policies that create jobs and grow the economy.
