The Local Palate
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Barbecue can look repetitive from the outside— the same cuts of meat, the same stacks of post oak, the same early mornings that begin long before the Texas sun rises. At scale, the ritual can appear almost mechanical: trim, season, smoke, rotate, rest. But repetition, in the
right hands, becomes refinement. For Leonard Botello IV, repetition is the point—it’s where instinct sharpens, patterns emerge, and discipline turns into expression.
