Northwestern University Alumni

Transcript:

[MUSIC PLAYING] HELEN KIM: Welcome back to Northwestern Intersections, where we talk to alumni about how key experiences propel them in their life's work. I'm your host, Helen Kim, from the Northwestern Alumni Association. And today we're speaking with Austin Harvey about what life has been like running a small business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Austin graduated from Northwestern after studying theater, political science, and music. While he was making ends meet working at bars after graduation, he then decided to dive deeper into the craft beer industry. 

In 2014, he helped open Beermiscuous in Chicago, a neighborhood craft beer cafe where you can read a book, do work on your laptop, and unwind with friends while enjoying fresh local beers. And as of March 2020, he acquired Beermiscuous as part of an employee ownership. Hey, Austin. Thank you so much for being here today. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Thank you for having me, Helen. 

HELEN KIM: So I want to hear all about Beermiscuous. And you know that I'm a huge fan, so I want to hear the concept behind it and how you all have been doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. But I think it's critical for our listeners to hear your career transition and your career story since the beginning of your college years at Northwestern to now. So tell us about yourself, and tell us about how you got to where you are now, today. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: So my story. I was born and raised in the Columbus, Ohio, area. And when I was looking at schools, I wanted a place with a good theater program, that was near a large city. And Northwestern immediately jumped to the top of the list because of that. I got in and was studying theater. Added political science as a double major, added music as a minor. 

And upon graduation, immediately moved to the city, got involved in the storefront theater scene, was working various odd office jobs and things of that nature to make ends meet. Kind of the quintessential waiting for one's big break, as you do in your early to mid 20s, and was starting to kind of get a little burned out. I mean, I had been doing shows nonstop since, basically, I was in high school. Since I was 14. 

And after a decade of doing that, I did get a little burned out and was thinking, do I want play music instead? I was looking for just something else, and was just sitting at home, and my girlfriend at the time, now wife, was reading a copy of the Chicago Reader, and was just on the classifieds, and she said, oh, hey, Austin, Sam's is hiring. And Sam's was Sam's Wine and Spirits, which was a now dearly departed chain of wine, beer, liquor stores. A small chain. There were about four locations, four or five, in the metro area. 

She knew that I had been very interested in craft beer and just the continual thirst of knowledge that being at Northwestern had helped to foster and everything like that. This was something that I could sink my teeth into in my post-college years, so just went there cold, applied for a job, got a job, and in less than a year, I was running the beer department at their flagship store. 

Left that job, worked at Goose Island for most of the next five years or so in various capacities. And then when I saw the notice that Beermiscuous was going to be opening, I saw the qualifications for the job, what the job was going to be, the concept behind the place, and everything like that, and thought, this seems like an ideal fit. 

And came to find out that the founder of the business, Paul Lehman was a Kellogg grad, so we talked about our various Northwestern experiences during the interview process. That helped out. I felt like I was a good candidate for the job anyway, but this just helped put me over the top. 

So I got the job. And we opened in 2014. So celebrated our sixth anniversary in June. The employees ended up buying the business in early March of this year, two weeks, two entire weeks before lockdown began. Which you can never prepare-- as you've heard on dozens of podcasts to this point, I'm sure. You can never prepare for a pandemic, especially business-wise or even just in life in general. 

But we found ourselves to be fairly agile and able to absorb the various punches and blows that come with lockdowns and decrees and economic downturns and just everything that folks had been dealing with in the last five and a half months here. So everyday we survive as a business, we feel like we're that much closer to making it. 

So something else worth mentioning too is that in Chicago, there is based the Cicerone program, which is for beer the way that the sommelier program helps to certify and signify the education of wine professionals. So Cicerone program is for beer professionals. And it has a lot of credence in Chicago, since it's based here, and since I think especially the food scene in Chicago works very much in hand with the beer scene. And there's just a lot of synergy and cooperation there. 

In 2017, I got my advanced Cicerone certification, which is the third of the four levels of the program. There are approximately 140 advanced Cicerones. There are 20 master Cicerones, but-- 

HELEN KIM: There are that many in Chicago, or in-- 

AUSTIN HARVEY: No, world. 

HELEN KIM: Oh, in my world. Oh my gosh. OK. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Planet. Yes. So it's mostly United States and Canada, with a few in Britain and Australia, New Zealand. But there are also Mexico, Japan, China is actually a burgeoning market for craft beer as well. So industry professionals are getting certified there as well. 

But it's mostly an American thing. The styles that you study are worldwide, but I think since a lot of the innovation in the beer industry has been coming from North America, especially in the last 20 years. That's why I think you're seeing this program really flourish in North America. 

Continuing my education and just feeding that hunger, that thirst for knowledge, is something that was certainly encouraged during my time at Northwestern, and it's something that I realized during my time in school, sometimes you feel like in middle school or elementary school, high school or whatever, that being extremely passionate or enthusiastic about gaining knowledge in a certain very niche area can be seen as nerdy or geeky, dorky, whatever. 

But a lot of times, that can be incentivized. And sometimes it is, and sometimes it's just, oh yeah, you just have a very large record collection. And sometimes it's like, oh yeah, you can actually get a job and have a career in a fun, burgeoning industry that has a lot of like-minded folks in it. 

HELEN KIM: When you started in school at Northwestern, what were you hoping to do after you graduate? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: I was hoping to be an actor, probably stage more than film or television. But you learn very quickly that those jobs are very limited. And a lot of times, it's tough to do that when you are younger, especially when, like I was, coming out of school, couldn't really afford to move to New York. So. 

And patrons of the theater are generally older. They want to see people like-- characters like themselves on stage as well. And the problems and stories and characters that cater toward younger audiences don't necessarily get the donors, and they don't necessarily sell the expensive tickets that allow for professional theaters to function. 

And that's fine. You know, I still absolutely enjoy theater, but also really I got involved with Chirp Radio when I moved to Chicago, which is a local independent radio station. The music scene is something that is going to cater more toward younger audiences and younger people. I love Chicago's theater scene, but I found myself more drawn to music and radio and the beer scene as well. And that's just where I ended up gravitating. 

HELEN KIM: So I know you love what you do right now, but did it feel bittersweet knowing that theater and music weren't necessarily going to be your main focus in your career? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Not really, because that old adage, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life, that's a lie. Work is work. And I think being honest with oneself and realizing, yeah, this is a job. This is labor. This is time and energy that you are spending in order to subsidize the rest of your life. 

If you can find something in that realm that you enjoy, and you're still able to pursue the other passions in your life, whether it be acting or performing music and going to shows, discovering new records, new bands, things like that. Just because you're not doing that stuff for a living doesn't mean you can't spend your time and energy on that. 

And I've never found that one necessarily defines themselves by the thing that they do in order to pay the rent. I mean, it's just something you do to make sure that you're able to house and clothe and feed yourself and those around you. But being able to do that in the beer industry, something that is-- especially running a bar, it's a very social atmosphere, which is something that I love. It certainly beats working in an office. I was going crazy doing that. 

And these are things that you learn about yourself. Because you don't know this stuff. It's just, oh yeah, you know, this is a job. And a job is what you get out of college, because it's tough to pay the bills otherwise. But quickly learning that OK, if I have to have this job type thing, it might as well be something that if it can be social, great. If I can be up and moving around, as opposed to sitting behind a desk all day, that's also good. 

But you find the things that you want, and you tailor your career toward those. And there's nothing saying that I won't go back into acting later on, or anything else, or music, or anything like that later on. It's just it's easier to make money in beer right now than it is in the-- especially in the performing arts. 

HELEN KIM: Absolutely. And jobs are places where we are at literally most hours of our week. If you're working a 9:00 to 5:00, or even any other jobs that require you to be site after 9:00 to 5:00-- there are many different kinds of jobs out there, and I don't want to stereotype anything. But I think because we're there most of the time, you want to be yourself. You want to figure out what you want to do and actually enjoy that instead of just feeling stuck. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: I think especially in this century, people quickly absolved themselves of the idea that the thing that you study in college is the thing that you absolutely have to do for your career in life. You know, when I got out of school, it was the dot com collapse and the Enron collapse were still on the back of everyone's mind. 

And then basically, when I started in the beer industry was when the financial crisis hit. And that was certainly a strange time. And it was something that everyone was talking about, that people kept buying booze, so. 

But you quickly realize that people of my age and people that I knew at the time, it was always a constant hustle, whether people were working two or three different part time gigs or just trying to find the different things to make the ends meet, whether it was doing private education stuff on the side or anything. I think the only thing that I immediately moved off the table was going to grad school, because that was just-- I just knew that that was something that I wasn't going to be interested in. 

And plus that wasn't going to guarantee employment afterwards anyway. And any time you're able to find yourself a gig in work that is going to be steady even if you don't keep your current employment-- like, if you're serving, you can always go to another restaurant. If you're working for a brewery. 

Nowadays, there are a lot of breweries out there. As long as you're not doing anything too heinous, you can probably find a gig somewhere else. So it's a constant hustle, and it's exhausting, sure, but there's a certain dignity to it as well. 

HELEN KIM: And do what makes sense for you. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Yeah. Oh gosh, absolutely. 

HELEN KIM: On your own timing. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Especially now. I mean, there are so many different reasons to be miserable out there. Your job doesn't need to be one of them. 

HELEN KIM: So what's the concept behind Beermiscuous, and what is this space for? And I know I'm a huge fan, so I know all about it. But I want everyone to hear about what Beermiscuous is. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Yes. Beermiscuous is a craft beer-focused bar and shop, two locations in the metro area. And we are able to serve on-site as well as sell beers to go. We have a modest wine and spirits collection, but we don't do mixed drinks. You know, there's not even an ice maker on site or anything like that. It's a beer-focused place. It allows us to stay kind of lean and mean and not lose the plot as far as the concept of the place goes. 

We have a very large focus on local, as far as being community focused, and then also what we stock on the shelves. There are over 100 breweries in the Chicago metropolitan area right now, and we enjoy representing as many of them as we possibly can in our selections. We feel that the Chicago beer scene is very exciting and encyclopedic, as far as styles go. 

It's not just focused on one or two different things. There are breweries that focus on everything from wild and sour ales to lager, hoppy things, dark beers, lighter stuff, everything in between. There is something for everyone over 21. 

And we revel in the fact that we are able to get as much of that in as possible. So thankfully, when we first opened, Paul, the founder, allowed me a lot of creative freedom as far as choosing the selection for the shop and making sure that we had a selection that was representative of the Chicago beer scene but also of the tastes and desires of our customers as well. 

We are part destination and get a fair amount of tourists coming in, when tourists are able to come in. But also we function as a neighborhood bar. We function as a place where folks are able to host events, be they, of course, birthday parties, baby showers, engagement parties, but also community events. 

You know, we hosted everything from gaming groups, fantasy football drafts, fantasy baseball drafts. It's a place that folks of many different interests are able to come to and enjoy and feel encouraged that they're not only pursuing their own personal interests, but maybe also fostering an interest in craft beer, which creates for us another small base of customers, which is great. 

HELEN KIM: And you mentioned that in March 2020, literally two weeks before lockdown took place, you all became an employee-owned business. So congratulations. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Thank you. 

HELEN KIM: And in your thoughts, what are the benefits of an employee-owned business? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: We have no one to answer to. When the founders proposed to us selling the business to the employees, I've had this great working relationship with the founder, here. Who knows, if someone else purchases this business, who knows what they're going to do with it, if they're going to-- because I've worked in enough bars and restaurants to know that a lot of times, people will think that messing with a good thing is a good thing, and it usually just serves to frustrate and confuse the employees. And if you're doing that, then who knows what you're doing to your customer base. 

And just thinking about all of that stuff, it was a very easy choice for me, for us, to say, yeah, let's find a way for the employees to purchase this, to make this work for us, so that A, we won't have anyone to swoop in otherwise and possibly mess with a good thing, but then also creates an employee-owned business that we are able to put our stamp on. That we are able to define what this is for ourselves. 

Because it's the employees that are going to be the forward facing people for your enterprise, no matter what it is. So making sure that they have a voice, that they are able to be themselves while they're working, that they're able to feel comfortable there as well. That's what helps foster that atmosphere for your customers as well. 

We felt that by acquiring this and putting our stamp on it, that we would be able to better communicate to our customer base who we are, what we're about, and how that informs the work that we do. And we hope and feel that the customers appreciate that and maybe even agree with us. 

HELEN KIM: You know, like you said, we can't predict a pandemic. We can't figure out what to do. Nobody really knows, and you've just got to figure out as you go. How has life been changed since having a storefront and having a small business during the COVID-19 pandemic? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: Quite a bit, to say the least. For Beermiscuous, for both locations, we are a bar without a kitchen. Thankfully also a store. So we knew immediately, even when we saw a lockdown coming from a few days away, well, we'll still be able to sell stuff to go, whether it's taking sales online, which we hadn't done before to this point, doing curbside pickup. 

When lockdown first began, that was the model that we went to. We weren't sure, exactly, all the different ways and vectors the disease was spreading and everything. We didn't allow non-employees into the shop. So we were just doing curbside pickup for quite awhile. 

Then when things opened up, and we were allowed to have folks come in on-site, we stocked up on PPE and made sure that we were sanitizing surfaces and everything else like that constantly. And got the taps back and fired up and got plastic cups in to serve for folks, much like you would in a fancy wine bar. 

There's specific glassware for craft beers. And you want to make sure that that's all taking care of and everything unless there is a pandemic going on, in which case, well, the best you can do is finding plastic cups that are biodegradable, which we did. 

We were able to serve on-site for a couple of weeks before then cases started to go up in the State of Illinois and the city of Chicago again. So there was a mayoral decree stating that bars that didn't have outdoor seating or kitchens had to shut down their on-premise service again. And unfortunately, we fell into that subset of the bars in the city, so. 

But we are still allowed to have people come in and shop on site. And that has actually helped us out. And bars are always places that people go to to, I think, have conversations that begin as small talk, and then whether fueled by courage, liquid or otherwise, folks are able to divulge a bit more about their lives, whether to their friends or strangers or bartenders or whatever. They're able to be a bit more honest about themselves. 

It's a third place. It's not your work, it's not your home, it's another place that you can go to to sort through the problems or difficulties that you might be having in the other two places. And being able to rekindle that in some small, surreal way was-- even if you're only able to see the top half of a person's face because of masking, and even if you're staying 6 to 10 feet away from folks, still even just having conversations saying, how are you doing, I feel like is still very helpful, I think, for us and for our customer base. 

And being able to exist as a neighborhood beer store. We're still able to bring in new customers who hear about us or who are moving to the neighborhood. You know, they'd say, oh yeah, my neighbor told me about this place. I thought I would come check it out. 

And you think, this is a pandemic. Who's trying out new places? Well, people are. People absolutely are. And that's great. It's great. It is a challenge, especially since we bought the business two weeks before lockdown. 

I never felt like we had a choice to do anything but find ways to survive. So I think that lack of a safety net is sort of a bit of confidence, where it's like, well, we don't have a safety net, so we have to fashion a parachute out of something. So might as well do it. [LAUGHS] 

HELEN KIM: Mhm, yes. And you all have formed this bond with your community, and it sounds like there are always newcomers coming in, checking the place out. Do you think that the past five and a half months, since March 2020, do you feel that you all and the community have built a stronger relationship, in some sense? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: I think so. I think the fact that the staff are the owners of the business, and the people working there are the faces of the business, so all of us are advocating for social justice organizations, and we're all very vocal politically. And even there were a couple of times where staff have either donated tips or business profits to organizations like Brave Space Alliance, or Assata's Daughters, or other Chicago BIPOC organizations or LGBTQ plus organizations. 

Saying that we want to donate to those organizations and using the business' face to advocate for that, that's something that I think it shows the community where our loyalties lie and what we're interested in and that the community can say, oh yeah, the place where I go to get my beer is involved in these sorts of things. And I feel good about that. And I feel good giving my business to them, and I feel good advocating them to my friends and my neighbors and family members and everything else like that. 

Through social media, we're able to say, yes, we're still open. There is also a GoFundMe for staff members who might be having trouble paying bills right now. Please give to that. Or give to these other organizations that are helping in the community. 

We don't feel as much of a need to have a filter on social media. So that doesn't mean that we're just going out there with blue words all the time or anything like that. It means more that it's less of a watered down corporate speak, and more just us being our honest, sometimes silly, sometimes irreverent selves. 

This is our business and the stamp that we are putting on where we work. And it is who we are. We're not just beer slingers. It allows us to say, yeah, we're also involved in the community. We also care about these organizations. We're also involved in these social justice orgs or community radio or other things like that. 

HELEN KIM: Yes, thank you for sharing that. And like I said, that's one of the biggest things I love about Beermiscuous, that you create this bond with your community that is irreplaceable. And that's why you have so many customers wanting to come back and telling all their friends about it. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: People will be regulars at their favorite bar for years, even after certain employees or bartenders or ownership groups, even, have come and gone. But if you're able to at least keep a certain atmosphere there, even the best places, they'll have much less turnover than, say, your average corporate or seasonal sort of place or anything else like that. And I think that that speaks to the culture that you're building there and mission statement that you're putting forward. 

HELEN KIM: Austin, I love your energy, and I love how passionate you are about your job and your industry and your business. And listening to your career story was fascinating to me. Just for you to really own and embrace the fact that maybe this isn't the right fit for me right now, and I'm going to try something new. And I love that about you and your story. 

AUSTIN HARVEY: If there's something to say about a theater degree, it's that it's your comfort playing different sorts of roles. If you're comfortable doing what you're doing, then whatever piece of paper is attached to your name is just that. And I'm not saying that to devalue my degree from Northwestern at all. Of course. 

It's just saying that yes, I'm able to take what I learned in my wonderful experiences. I loved my time at NU. And I'm able to take the experiences that I had there and translate that into this other thing where I-- because some of our best customers our fellow Northwestern graduates, where they're able to say, oh yeah, this tracks. This is something that not only is this a fellow alumni, but they're bringing what they learned and turning it in to my local bar, which that's incredible no matter where you went to school or if you went to school. 

HELEN KIM: And if there's one advice that you want to share with your fellow Wildcats right now, what would it be? 

AUSTIN HARVEY: I would say that what you study is what you are enjoying right now. And that's great. Embrace that and love it and know that things can and will change. And if that means that you're taking the lessons that you learned in college and turning them into a different career path for yourself, that's great. You don't need to be forever bonded to the thing that you study in school. If anything, it's just a jumping off point. 

HELEN KIM: Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Northwestern Intersections. For more information about our podcasts, please visit northwestern.edu/intersections. Again, that's northwestern.edu/intersections. Until next time, stay safe, and take care of yourself and your families.