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In August 1974, Steve Onstad watched his year-old barbecue joint burn to the ground. “I had put some fire in the pit, and went down the road to help a local gentleman jumpstart his car,” Onstad, the owner of Swinging Door Bar-B-Q in Richmond, recalled. “When I came back, the place was in flames.” He had originally built the shack on his family’s land southwest of Houston after flunking out of college. Two days before the fire, he had installed an air conditioning system in the newly enclosed patio, bringing the indoor seating capacity to 27. During the hot summer he chose that business expense over purchasing insurance, which he lamented as the garden hose he was futilely aiming at the flames lost water pressure.…

The post The Texas Historical Commission Recognizes Barbecue Joints That Have Turned 50 appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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