Dobi Catering turning off the fryers after 63 years

Dobi Catering and Food Services will fry its last piece of chicken Sunday, ending a 63-year run in Allegheny Township’s main commercial corridor.

Manager Gary Miller was the catalyst for the closure after he, along with his wife, Nikki, decided to call it quits.

“I’ve decided to move on to somewhere I’m part of something — but not all of something,” Gary Miller said.

While Annette and Don Herbst of Buffalo Township own the business, the Millers effectively are the business.

The Vandergrift couple started work at Dobi in 2001, just weeks after the Herbsts bought the business.

Gary Miller, 48, ascended to assistant manager, then manager within a few years.

Nikki Miller serves as the banquet coordinator, but in reality, they both do a bit of everything. Dobi only has two other employees, and the stress of running the place — cooking, transporting food to events, hiring and more — wore on the Millers.

“It took him a lot longer to get this way than I did,” she said, taking a break from stocking a walk-in cooler.

This week is being spent handling final orders and preparing for a wedding Saturday.

All customers with orders after Sunday or gift cards will receive refunds, according to a Facebook post from the establishment.

On Monday, the Millers’ lives practically start anew. Gary will be working for a local construction company while Nikki helps care for their grandchildren, ages 3 and 5.

Without their presence, Annette Herbst said, Dobi can’t go on.

“At this point, we have no prospects for a new manager,” she said.

Annette, 62, and Don Herbst, 64, are planning to retire from the insurance industry soon.

They envisioned Dobi as a “retirement job” where they might “just go over and help out,” Annette said, but not another full-time gig.

The building, business and equipment has been for sale by Czekalski Real Estate since 2023. As of Tuesday, they were being sold as a bundle at an asking price of $725,000. Annette said it’s too early to say whether that will remain the case.

Tough times

Caterers, in general, struggled during the covid-19 pandemic as people canceled graduations, weddings and all kinds of large gatherings. Dobi was an exception, as takeout orders buoyed the business, Annette said.

But other struggles have emerged over the years. The Millers acknowledged their relatively high prices. A 105-piece set of mixed chicken thighs, breast and drums costs $258 at Dobi. At Giant Eagle, customers can get 100 pieces for $100.

And more places sell fried chicken than ever, Gary Miller said. It once made up more than half of the business. These days, it’s closer to a quarter.

“We used to do thousands and thousands of pounds of chicken a week,” he said.

Business may have slowed down in recent years, but since the closure was announced Sunday, it has been booming. At one point Tuesday, according to Gary Miller, the line stretched out the building and onto the sidewalk.

By 1 p.m., Dobi had moved about 40 bags of pierogies.

“I’m gonna miss them so much,” said customer Carolynn Hepler, pierogies in hand.

Hepler, 66, of Allegheny Township has been eating there for a few years and grew close with Nikki Miller in the process.

“I always thought this was her business,” Hepler said.

The Millers said they get that a lot.

Do-Bi to Dobi

In 1962, friends Doris Biss and Dorothy “Bibs” Furin mashed their names into “Do-Bi” and opened a catering service in a small home at the intersection of Route 356 and Angel Drive.

The Herbsts took over in 2001 and altered the name for what Don Herbst referred to in a 2024 interview with TribLive as “legal reasons.” They eventually added to, then demolished and replaced that original home with a 7,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.

Annette Herbst recalled how she was pregnant with her daughter, Anastazia, at the time of purchase.

“We thought it might be something she’d want to run someday,” she said.

That didn’t come to pass, but over the years, Dobi became like a child of sorts to Annette Herbst.

Now, it’s “almost like they’re moving away,” she said.