On Friday mornings, the line outside Goldee’s Barbecue begins forming hours before the doors open. People unfold lawn chairs along Dick Price Road in southeast Fort Worth. They talk, play games and wait for trays of brisket, pork ribs, turkey and house-made sausage.
The line is part of the experience, but the community Goldee’s has built extends far beyond the customers waiting outside.
Since opening in 2020, the restaurant has become one of the most influential kitchens in modern Texas barbecue. Texas Monthly named Goldee’s the No. 1 barbecue joint in the state in 2021, an honor that turned the modest restaurant into an international destination almost overnight.
But D Magazine Food Critic Brian Reinhart said Goldee’s influence cannot be measured by rankings alone. After seeing the competitiveness and infighting that had long shaped parts of the Texas barbecue scene, the team chose not to perpetuate it.
Instead, they have remained open about their techniques, supported aspiring pitmasters, and made mentorship an essential part of their legacy. Their goal is not simply to protect what they have created, Reinhart explained, but to help cultivate a new generation of pitmasters who can take what they learn at Goldee’s and build something of their own.
Five friends and a shared education
Goldee’s was founded by a group of friends who grew up together in Arlington: Jonny White, Jalen Heard, Lane Milne, Dylan Taylor and Nupohn Inthanousay. Before opening the restaurant, several of them worked at respected barbecue businesses around Texas, learning different approaches to fire management, meat preparation and service.
“We covered all of our bases in Austin,” said Jalen Heard, Goldee's co-owner.
They brought that experience home and built Goldee’s collectively.
“There is a real democratic sense to them, I couldn’t tell you who is the leader,” explained D Magazine food critic Brian Reinhart.
That collaborative approach is evident throughout the restaurant. Cooks, owners and students rotate through different tasks, sharing responsibility for preparing the food and running service.
Although Goldee’s serves customers for just 12 hours each weekend, preparing for and running those services requires roughly 150 hours of combined labor. The team divides that workload through schedules designed to reduce burnout in an industry known for long, demanding hours.
“At the root of it, every business has to make money," said Lane Milne, Goldee's co-founder.
"But we want to try and just make sure the people that come here, the people that work here and us are all happy and want to do it, because inherently that makes better food.”
“A growing tide raises all ships”
Goldee’s openness, from encouraging staff to test new recipes to sharing techniques through its barbecue classes, stands apart from the competitiveness that emerged with the rise of modern craft barbecue.
“We kind of think of it like, a growing tide raises all ships,” co-founder Lane Milne said. “It creates an environment where you can all learn from each other. It turns into more of a friendship rather than just a transaction.”
The restaurant offers focused classes on brisket, ribs and sausage. Its five-day intensive classes also cover sausage making, trimming, seasoning, live-fire cooking, testing for doneness, slicing and side preparation, taking students behind the scenes of the restaurant’s process.
The classes draw home cooks, aspiring restaurant owners and barbecue professionals from across the United States and abroad. Along with the cookbook Goldee’s released in 2025, they make the restaurant’s knowledge accessible to people who may never work a shift in its kitchen.
A barbecue family tree
Perhaps the clearest measure of Goldee’s influence is the growing number of restaurants connected to the people and relationships formed there.
Former Goldee’s employees Amir Jalali opened Redbird BBQ in Port Neches, while Chuck Charnichart drew on her experience there to develop Lockhart’s Barbs-B-Q.
Zain Shafi worked at Goldee’s before opening Sabar BBQ, which blended Central Texas barbecue with Pakistani flavors. Though Sabar has closed, Shafi has since returned to Goldee’s as a co-owner.
Goldee’s mentorship has also traveled beyond Texas. In Orlando, Smokemade Meats + Eats owner Tyler Brunachesaid the Goldee's team are both mentors and friends who helped him develop his craft.
Redbird, Sabar, and Barbs-B-Q have all appeared on Texas Monthly’s Top 50 list. Rather than being a copy of Goldee’s, each restaurant reflects the background, community and perspective of the person behind it. That distinction is central to Goldee’s influence.
“The kind of people who go out and open their own shops were probably going to do that whether they came to us or not,” said Milne. “But hopefully, we helped alleviate some of the growing pains.”
Passing it down
Barbecue has always depended on knowledge passed from one person to another, how to tend a fire, when to wrap a brisket, what properly rendered fat should feel like. At Goldee’s, that tradition of teaching has expanded into a broader form of community-building.
“From the day I met the crew, I’ve become a part of the amazing Goldee’s extended universe," said Tyler Brunache, owner at Smokemade Meats and Eats.
"The hands-on teaching they’re able to give to everyone that crosses their path is an insane gift. Years after meeting them, we still get customers every weekend telling us that we were recommended by the Goldee’s team.”
At Goldee’s, the founders have created a place where everyone feels heard and the kitchen operates like a group of friends united by a love of barbecue. That supportive culture gives cooks the confidence to experiment and eventually pursue ideas of their own.
For Goldee’s, watching people leave to open successful restaurants is not a loss. It is part of the job.
The restaurant may be known for what comes off its smokers each weekend, but its lasting impact could be the community it has built and the next generation of pitmasters it has helped prepare.
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