Thousands of workers in western North Dakota are constantly on the move during the lunch hour. Most of the time a drive-thru fast food restaurant is the answer to a quick meal before getting back to work.
No matter what kind of food it is, restaurants in Dickinson are booming like everything else in oil country. It`s becoming a challenge for restaurant employees to keep up with traffic and for customers to get a quick bite to eat.
If you`re in a hurry to get fast food in oil country, get in line.
Thousands of customers line up every weekday looking for a fast meal.
"Right now everything is busy. You can go anywhere you want and there will be lines for everything," said Dickinson resident Justin Brown.
Many times the wait to get their food is anywhere from 20 minutes to a half hour. Hungry rig and construction workers back up drive-thru lines daily.
"We get through the drive thru, we don`t have enough time to eat our food so we got to head right back to the shop usually eating on the way back," said Dickinson resident Jason Root.
Burger King in Dickinson gets around 350 to 400 cars through their drive-thru everyday. The majority of their sales is through the drive thru, but sales as a whole are up 40 to 60 percent from previous years.
"Insane. It`s extremely hard to staff the place. It`s extremely hard to compete with everything that`s going on out here and with the oil, they pay very well. Companies pay very well. A lot of people can get jobs anywhere and it`s hard to keep the place staffed," said Burger King General Manager Jen Dirk.
Which is why preparation for lunch begins well in advance.
"You start some things the night before just to make sure that we are ready to go for our lunches," said Dirk.
Pita Pit is still a relatively new restaurant in Dickinson but has already lead the nation in sales for six months.
"It`s something new. People want to try it out. It`s healthier, people are really on that health kick right now," said Pita Pit General Manager Samantha Lindstedt.
Whether the food is healthy or it`s just that good, it`s a hot spot for workers on their break. The lunch hour at pita pit is the busiest time, but employees say they feel the rush at all times of the day.
"Constant and it`s busy and it keeps us, the time flies by and we don`t even realize it," said Lindstedt.
Stand Up: You don`t become the number one pita pit in the nation without waiting in line. Three to Six hundred people walk through these doors everyday.
"Say you`re on the grill and you look up and there`s a line out the door. It it just like constant like that til it starts to die down around 1-1:30," said Lindstedt.
And that means waiting to eat has become the norm in the queen city.
"Half hour to an hour some places to even get a table or sometimes 20 minutes to go through a drive thru," said Dickinson resident Kandace Kalbaugh.
However, customers have been satisfied with pita pit`s service.
"Even with them grilling everything, it`s a lot faster than anywhere else you go," said Brown.
If you`re going to grab a quick bite to eat in the heart of oil country, It`s best to get in line early.
Both Burger King and Pita Pit employees say they get deliveries in constantly because they run out of inventory fast. The Burger King in Dickinson is also the number one restaurant in its franchise.
