It almost sounds like a fairy tale: a group of friends in the Mid-Cities of DFW went all the way through school together, and decided to follow one another to Austin after high school graduation. Lane Milne, Jalen Heard, Dylan Taylor, Jonny White, and Nupohn Inthanousay all ended up working in the restaurant industry. They worked for some of the best restaurateurs in the state, learning from pitmasters of the highest acclaim. Still all in their twenties, the group (along with PJ Inthanousay) decided they’d gathered enough skills to run a joint of their own, so they moved back home and opened Goldee’s Barbecue in Fort Worth in February 2020. Nobody, not even the five friends, expected that just a year and a half later, their barbecue joint would be named the best in Texas.