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While standing in line at Kat’s Barbecue in Santa Fe (about 45 minutes south of Houston), it didn’t seem like I was in a restaurant that’s only been around for seven years. Employee Ernie Angel shared some familiar banter with most of the customers, and small talk with the rest, as he took their orders at the register. To his right, owner Andrew Steiner sliced the barbecue on a large cutting block and prepared the orders that he placed in the window, through which he surveyed the small, crowded dining room. “Is that Miss Alabama?” he shouted as a silver-haired woman walked though the door. She smiled and waved. Steiner already knew her order, and he says he knows the name of just about everyone…

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