EAT. DRINk. COOPERATE.

Before becoming the world’s first cooperatively owned and worker self-managed brewpub -

Black Star took root from an idea that looked beyond the path of conventional wisdom. A pub and brewery – owned by the community, for the community.

Co-founder Steven Yarak spread the idea of this unique business model throughout the neighborhood, which led to a meeting of 16 people in a vacant lot in Austin, Texas on January 14, 2006. Together, they assessed what it would take to give the neighborhood the brewpub it deserved. Among that initial group was Jeff Young and Johnny Livesay, Black Star Co-op's eventual first Beer and Kitchen Team Leaders.