Industry is a casual, neighborhood-focused restaurant and bar located at 1211 E. 5th Street, Ste. 150 in East Austin, serving scratch-made Texas comfort food with a modern twist, including smoked meats, handmade tortillas, and vegetable-forward dishes. Open for lunch, dinner, and late-night hours, Industry offers a welcoming space for locals and service-industry workers alike. Its vibe blends a relaxed beer-garden atmosphere with warm, approachable service, live music, trivia, and community events, making it a place where friends gather, new connections form, and every meal feels honest and thoughtfully prepared.
When co-founder Harlan Scott talks about Industry, he doesn’t sound like a restaurateur chasing accolades or buzz. He sounds like someone who’s lived every rung of the ladder, because he has.
“The service industry made me who I am,” Scott tells What Now Media Group in an exclusive interview. “It’s a gray-collar job. You come home tired, sore, humble, but you’ve also seen something new. You’ve been exposed to humanity.”
That lived experience is the backbone of Industry, Scott’s casual restaurant and bar concept, which first opened in San Marcos in 2018 and later expanded to East Austin. Built as both a love letter to service workers and an intentionally approachable neighborhood hangout, Industry blends scratch-made Texas comfort food, late-night hours, and an unpretentious beer-garden vibe with a deeply personal mission.
Scott’s path to Industry began decades earlier, waiting tables in college at a fine-dining restaurant, a place where, as he puts it, you could serve a former president one hour and be “plunging vomit out of a urinal” the next.
“You get to see all aspects of humanity, and you have to serve others,” he says. “That experience sticks with you.”
Over the years, Scott climbed from busboy to director of operations, eventually helping build a high-profile Austin restaurant group alongside a celebrity chef. When that partnership ended abruptly, Scott struck out on his own, first as a consultant, then eventually as an owner again, this time on his own terms.
“I went from being fired to becoming the number one restaurant consultant in Central Texas,” he says. “But owning Industry was never about prestige. It was about creating a place that felt real.”
That ethos shaped everything from the name to the business model. To most guests, “Industry” evokes hard work and honesty. To service workers, it’s a quiet signal.
“It was meant to be a dog whistle,” Scott explains. “Late hours. Menu language. A secret menu. Twenty percent off for the service industry. I wanted bartenders and servers to say, ‘Go to Industry, they take care of me.'”
That philosophy carried Industry through its early struggles in San Marcos, where the restaurant opened to little fanfare and nearly didn’t survive its first year. Rather than chasing broad appeal, Industry found its footing by welcoming communities that other places overlooked.
“We became big with the Black community, big with the gay community,” Scott says. “We hosted events when other bars were turning people away. Eventually, the locals came around.”
Then came 2020, and unexpectedly, momentum.
“We did everything right during COVID,” Scott says. “When we reopened after quarantine, we broke our all-time sales record on day one, and then beat it every single day that summer.”
Buoyed by that success, Scott decided to bring Industry closer to home, opening the Austin location in his own East Side neighborhood. But post-pandemic realities hit hard: empty offices, shifting work habits, rising rents, and a consumer base that no longer moved the way it once did.
“My entire model was fucked,” he says bluntly.
What followed was a painful recalibration. Scott liquidated personal assets, stepped away from consulting, and immersed himself fully in the business. He overhauled the kitchen, committing to a 100-percent scratch menu rooted in Texas ingredients, including smoked meats, handmade tortillas, vegetable-forward dishes, and comfort food done with care.
“I realized I had to make the food destination-worthy,” he says. “Now people come here because the food’s good, and I never expected that.”
Industry also evolved operationally, leaning into live music, trivia, open mics, sports programming, and a warmer, more organic atmosphere. Even social media, once an afterthought, became a surprising strength.
Despite the challenges, Scott remains clear-eyed about what success actually means to him.
“If this place just breaks even, I’m the richest man on earth,” he says. “I eat for free. I have a purpose. I’m surrounded by community.”
That sense of community is what keeps him going, mentoring young staff members, watching friendships form, and seeing Industry function as what he calls a “third space.”
“Restaurants are the last fabric holding people together,” Scott says. “It’s the place you stop into for no reason at two in the afternoon. First dates, business deals, and birthday parties where only half the group shows up, we don’t care. That’s what we want to be.”
For Scott, Industry isn’t just a restaurant. It’s a reflection of everything the service industry gave him, and a place where that spirit still thrives, one honest meal at a time.
