Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Hale.
Hi Josh, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started working in restaurants at 16. I didn’t really have a plan, other than knowing that one day I would own my own. By 18 I was managing, and by 24 my business partner and I were trying to rub two nickels together to open something from scratch in downtown Waco. While venting about it to a friend, someone nearby overheard us and mentioned a restaurant that might be for sale. That conversation changed everything.
We met with the previous owners of the steakhouse in August of 2012, and by September 2012 we were two young, proud, figuring-it-out-as-we-go owners of Waco’s oldest steakhouse. We built our catering business from the ground up into one of the leading operations in the area. My former business partner is still running the steakhouse to this day. Those ten years shaped everything that came after.
When that chapter ended, I sold my portion to my former business partner and did something I’d always wanted to do. I traveled. I spent time in Europe, moving through different cities, different cultures, different ways of life, and most of all, different food. It recalibrated everything.
I came home with no real intention of going back to restaurants. My family and I started a home restoration business and restored several homes together. It made total sense. I’ve always loved taking something with good bones and making it what it was always supposed to be.
Harvest on 25th was originally owned by my now fiancé Toby and his business partner. When I found out he was thinking about selling, I jokingly told him I’d buy it. He said no, a few times, actually. But as we were wrapping up our last home restoration, the market was cooling and flipping homes wasn’t going to be sustainable much longer. That old itch started coming back. I kept nudging. He kept saying no, not because he didn’t think I could do it, but because he knows firsthand how hard restaurants are, and honestly, we’d only been dating less than a year.
Then one day I overheard him on the phone with a potential buyer, heard the terms, and something clicked. I walked over and told him: “if that deal falls through, I want the same deal.” He figured it was a done deal so he agreed. A few weeks later, it wasn’t done at all. We sat down, I met with him and his business partner, and in September of 2023 I became the new owner of Harvest on 25th. Exactly eleven years after buying my first restaurant, the steakhouse.
Harvest is a completely different world from the steakhouse. It’s breakfast and lunch, no late nights, a different pace, a different feel. We get our coffee beans custom roasted by Pinewood, a local roaster, and our fresh squeezed orange juice from Oh My Juice!, a local shop just down the way. There is something about using what is right here in our own backyard that means everything to me. Having other small businesses be part of my small business, that is what it is all about.
You will find vintage finds all around, plants everywhere and smell of food. (honestly everything you would find at my house, at harvest)
Harvest sits in the Castle Heights district, one of Waco’s most sought after neighborhoods, close to downtown but settled into a real neighborhood. Our little building is home to some of the coolest small businesses in the city: The Carpenter’s Daughter, an incredibly well curated shop that somehow has everything; Sloane’s, a craft cocktail bar with a vintage vibe and a creative rotating menu; and Mila’s, a family owned coffee shop with so much flavor and the best pick me up around. A couple of vintage stores sit right across the street. My neighbors are genuinely the best. We have hosted block parties before and we need to get another one on the books soon. Seeing that whole block come alive is something else.
When people walk into Harvest, I want them to feel like they are walking into my home. Cozy, welcome, well fed, and already thinking about when they are coming back. That has always been the goal.
Beyond Harvest, Toby and I started a dinner party last year called First Eight. The concept is simple: the first eight people to sign up, join us at our home for dinner. No agenda, no theme, just a table full of people who may not have known each other before they sat down. We did it every month last year. This year we are doing it once a quarter. Bringing people together over a good meal is what both of us are wired for. First Eight just lets us do that at home, and finally lets us sit down too.
So whether you’re at Harvest or at one of our dinner parties the goal is the same for me, I want everyone to feel welcome, comfortable and seen. Something that is always said in our home is “Love People Well.” so that’s the goal, everyone feels that way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think in all small businesses there are obstacles and challenges, for me one of the biggest challenges was during Covid when the state told us to shut down, I remember leaving work that day feeling completely lost. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and the shelves were bare. People were panic buying everything. And it hit me that we were about to have our food supplier pull our delivery truck, which meant we were sitting on inventory with nowhere to send it.
So we had an idea. What if we just sell it?
I called our health inspector, got the green light, and within days Harvest had become a pre-order grocery store. Uncooked meats, eggs, bread, toilet paper, the basics people couldn’t find anywhere else. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t our plan, but it worked. We were able to serve a real need in our community, keep our staff working, and create a revenue stream we never saw coming. At the same time we were refunding wedding after wedding on the catering side, not knowing when any of it would come back. It was scary in a way that is hard to fully describe.
But I think that season cemented something in me that was already there: I am a figure it out as you go person. Always have been. Covid just confirmed it. And honestly, it recalibrated my threshold for stress. After that, when something hard hits, my first thought is usually, well, it could be worse. We will figure it out.
Because that is just small business. Staffing shortages, slow weeks, food costs jumping overnight with no warning. There is always something. But that is also just part of it, and I think the people who last are the ones who stop waiting for it to calm down and just learn to move through it.
As you know, we’re big fans of Harvest on 25th. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Harvest on 25th is a scratch-made breakfast and lunch restaurant tucked into the Castle Heights district of Waco, Texas. Everything on the menu is made from scratch in-house, with an accommodating menu that genuinely tries to meet people where they are, whether that means dietary restrictions, a regular order they’ve had a hundred times, or something they’ve never tried before.
The space feels like it was put together with intention. Vintage pieces sourced from around Waco and beyond, plants, warm textures. It’s the kind of room that makes you want to slow down. Which, as it turns out, is exactly the point. Harvest isn’t trying to be everything to everyone. It’s a neighborhood restaurant in the truest sense of the word, where the regulars are real and the food is honest.
I love how I’m able to come to work everyday, get to meet new people but at the same time get to see and talk to people that have supported us for years.
Harvest is an order at the counter style restaurant. When I feel the most proud is when we have a line wrapped around the building outside and the people willing to stand in a line to have a meal at our place.
My team is also great and makes me proud everyday. They’re so creative and hard working and so fun to work with. They help create new menu items and really work hard to bring new life to Harvest.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I have a huge collection of cookbooks and love to listen to various podcast. some of my favorite style of cookbooks are Mediterranean foods and baked goods and I want to incorporate more of those recipes into Harvest. I also love the podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler, it’s just a fun time
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.harvest25th.com
- Instagram: @harvest25th
- Other: personal Instagram @_josh_hale
