VALUES-BASED VALUE

Co-ops exist to meet the needs of their member-owners, and subscribe to an internationally recognized set of principles and values. Our Ends Policies express our community’s values and act as the guide for our daily operation’s ability to meet the needs of our member-owners. We pass this on to our patrons in many forms of values-based values across our Eat. Drink. Co-operate. continuum. We’d like to take some time to share with you all how we feel we create value.

EAT.
The Workers’ Assembly is charged to provide products and service of exceptional quality per our Ends Policy, A.1, Patron Experience. In the kitchen, we can express our community’s values by offering high quality, locally-sourced, often sustainable, always ethical and humane food choices at extremely competitive prices. We feel that it is important maintain an accessible price point for our patrons and member-owners, that way they can try items that they may not want to try at other eateries due to the inevitable price-portion gap.

To this end, we do things like offering fresh, never frozen, Texas redfish for our fish and chips when the majority of our competitors offer frozen Atlantic cod, haddock or even turbot. We see this commitment to sustainable food choices as paramount in our menu creation. All of our proteins are sourced from ethical or certified humane producers, and our produce selections are strictly local and seasonal allowing you to eat what is available year round. We extend our community values outward to our vendors by supporting them, rather than buying from large scale factory farms that offer selections out of season.

DRINK.
We offer local selections of Texas craft beer—including what we make in house—along with limited release and otherwise tasty selections from high quality domestic and foreign producers. We create and advertise beer-related events like our Wednesday special taps, glass nights, and house cask nights to foster a culture of celebrating beer, inviting people to come in and try something new. And our tap wall is consistently rotating, so there’s something new to try almost every day.

And if you’re not finding what you’re looking for on the tap wall, ask one of our Pub Teamsters which bottles we have. We regularly get limited-release bottles for the individual or to share. Plus, we try to keep a small fleet of styles that may not be currently on the tap wall along with house beer that’s out of rotation for the season. And, we’re always happy to make a recommendation!

An added benefit of Black Star is the ability to take beer home with you. We offer snazzy growlers with our logo that you can fill with house beer or one of the several beers on tap. The same thing goes for our bottled selection. Feel free to take home a bottle of Jester King for a rainy day (or for later that night).

And for all this, we charge a fair market price, gauging our prices on other good brew destinations in Austin. To bring it back to our Ends, particularly A.4, Worker Treatment, by supporting a living wage, our prices reflect a deeper value, and you don’t have to tip.  So cheers to that!

CO-OPERATE.
As a co-op, we create value by offering membership, letting you own the place where you hang out and socialize which is in harmony with our A.2 Ends Policy, Community Involvement, where our Workers’ Assembly is tasked with encouraging involvement in the local community. We like to keep a clean, functional space that’s comfortable for you to spend time with your friends. We host weekly events to create a sense of community among beer enthusiasts and member-owners.

But most of all, we try to create value based on—well—values. We are able to express and create value by supporting our community, local businesses and workers in every aspect of our organization—we showcase local and sustainable businesses and co-ops by offering their products, we support a living wage and democratic self-management, we support our community through sponsorships and donations to local organizations, and we educate our customers on how great it is to be a co-op.

We hope you appreciate your membership and experience with Black Star to be invaluable!