What does the resume of a profitable restaurateur, actual property investor and philanthropist appear like? For Atlanta’s Ebony Austin, it seems to be like working her approach up the ladder at Godiva for 12 years, shifting from supervisor to company specialist to overseeing retailer operations. She later grew to become a enterprise improvement supervisor for 1-800-Flowers, overseeing all of the Fannie Might chocolate retailers within the Chicago space.
After attending the Your Home Academy, she says she purchased her first property for $30,000, then flipped it for $300,000. Her actual property investments allowed her to open her first restaurant in 2019, and now she owns 5: Georgia-based Cliché Restaurant and Wine Bar in Faculty Park, Stir Home in Atlanta, Nouveau Bar and Grill with places in each Faculty Park and Jonesboro, and Nouveau Noir in Dallas, Texas.
She was a millionaire by the point she was 35 and has given away greater than $1 million in scholarships to college students at traditionally Black faculties and universities (HBCUs).
Yearly, she creates a Christmas expertise for 1000’s of households in want and says she has by no means spent lower than $250,000. Her largest occasion was on the Gateway Middle Enviornment in Faculty Park in 2024.
Most individuals would collapse beneath the load of accountability Austin carries, however for this dedicated entrepreneur, self-discipline permits her to remain centered on her targets.
“I come from a spot of understanding that for those who actually need one thing, to dream it’s high quality, however self-discipline will at all times be that bridge between exhausting work and your goals and the place you at the moment are…. I’ve at all times had grit and grind about myself, and I’ve at all times appreciated good issues, and I understood that with the intention to maintain them, I wanted to place within the work,” she says. “And most significantly, I at all times knew that in some unspecified time in the future, I wished to be in a spot the place I may really assist individuals. That was extra of my motivation than something: How do I get in a spot the place I’m efficient in communities that had been like mine?”
Having grown up in a tight-knit neighborhood in Chicago, Austin says that she felt wealthy due to the love that surrounded her.
“You may go to your neighbor’s home and have dinner and have time, and they might be sure you obtained again residence protected,” she says. “So all of it felt like household. So I understood that it was greater than a greenback quantity. It was actually extra of how do you be of service to individuals and the way do you assist and what does influence appear like in your group?… That’s what retains me going, to say, ‘Ebony, you continue to haven’t performed sufficient. Ebony, you bought to maintain going. Ebony, you gotta see what’s subsequent. How do you get there? How do you assist? We assist 50 individuals this yr. How can we assist 300 individuals subsequent yr?’”
This mindset drove her to commit a major a part of her mission to uplifting and financially supporting Black students at HBCUs. As a pupil at Langston College, Austin struggled financially and knew she wished to assist different college students keep away from the challenges she confronted.
In accordance with the Thurgood Marshall Faculty Fund, 94% of all HBCU college students are awarded some sort of economic help, but HBCUs have one-eighth the common endowments of predominantly white establishments.
This actuality is what led to Nouveau Creations, a line of stone-ground grits Austin launched in 2023, on March 12, her grandmother’s birthday.
“That’s who really raised me as somewhat lady,” Austin shares. “She died after I was 9, and I lived together with her. In order that was our factor was grits. And in order that’s why that’s the one signature merchandise that we have now on our menu [at Nouveau Bar and Grill].”
She knew {that a} product centered on issues that actually mattered—household and schooling—would give her the profitable method for fulfillment.
The significance of giving again
“I went to an HBCU,” she says. “I understood the battle. I understood the dearth of economic help. And, so, I simply sort of mixed the 2 issues. It was the beginning of the individual that raised me. After which it was additionally the perfect years of my life… if I may assist college students get to the place they’re attempting to undergo schooling, for me, that was big. And in order that’s why 100% of these [grits] proceeds [go] to HBCU college students. After which I match no matter that appears like on the tip. So if we elevate $150,000, then personally, I’ll match the $150,000. And, due to that, we haven’t been capable of inform a pupil no.”
Since she began promoting the grits in 2021—out there on-line and in 180 Publix and 45 Meals Lion places throughout Georgia—Austin has given greater than $1 million in scholarships to HBCU college students. She additionally conducts an HBCU tour yearly and has been identified to indicate up on campuses with a DJ and 18-wheeler stocked with groceries so college students can fill their pantries.
With a lot cash already given away, you’d suppose there could be a stopping level, however Austin has no off change for her generosity.
In her newest philanthropic endeavor, the true property investments that allowed her to purchase her first restaurant are going to permit others to purchase their first residence. And the complete circle cherry on high? Her restaurant group will get first dibs.
“It’s an attractive factor when individuals can pour into their group,” Austin says, sharing, “we’ve helped plenty of them construct their credit score. We’ve helped them be capable to go and purchase automobiles. We’ve helped a few of them now have their very own home… so now we’re preparing to enter a part the place we’re on the point of really construct properties. And I’m enthusiastic about that.”
She says she goals to create reasonably priced housing for her group in addition to cops, educators and different very important members of the group.
The objective, she says, is to set the individuals she cares about up for fulfillment.
Austin discovered way back that being part of your group is extra than simply lip service. It’s greater than only a restaurant in a neighborhood. It’s exhibiting up. It’s doing the work. It’s making profound connections that influence issues in highly effective methods. It’s believing within the individuals round you and alluring them to affix you at your desk.
“I get pleasure from making individuals comfortable,” she says, at all times staying true to that voice inside that advised her, “Ebony, you continue to haven’t performed sufficient. Ebony, you bought to maintain going.”
Photograph by Mel B. Images
