March echo

Intense ‘Industry’ opening
The restaurant has struggled since opening
during the pandemic
By Jason Keil; photos courtesy of Industry PHX
It’s tough getting any Valley
restaurant off the ground.
But Ruben Gonzalez, the
owner of Eleventh Monkey,
and Matthew Moody really had
their work cut out for them
when they opened Industry
PHX, located where The Louie
once stood at 607 West Osborn
Road, late last year. Even before
the pandemic forced businesses
to readjust, the duo, who were
the minds behind The Hustle
10 MARCH 2021 | ECHOMAG.COM
dance parties at Kobalt, dealt
with investors pulling out and
headaches from neighbors.
What’s kept them going
through all of the stress is their
desire to give the community
something they knew it needed:
a safe space for everyone.
They shared some of their
stories with Echo Magazine in
February. This interview has
been edited for length and
clarity.
Echo Magazine: I’m sure
this has been an intense
experience. Is there a
particular moment that stands
out?
Matthew Moody: You can start
with the obvious: we are in an
unprecedented time in the
history of the world. We were
under the belief that we would
be able to open and function
as a whole entity. Then you
learn you can only open at half
capacity, and you have to do
this and that, so you’re already
dealing with a lower income
rate, and bills are coming in.
And people understandably
don’t want to come out, but you
need them to so you can stay
open. And we’ve never opened
a restaurant before, so there’s
a lot we had to learn in a short
amount of time.
Ruben Gonzales: We also got
put into litigation by our old
partner. We can only say so
much [about it], but it put us
in a position that almost any
money that Matt and I did have
leftover as a cushion was gone.
We had to go to something
else, and that added a ton of
stress. We were going to start
in the negative, but we figured
it out and got on our feet. But
there’s always something you
don’t know. Water lines break,
pipes don’t work, and toilets
don’t flush.
Matthew Moody: I tried to
route a cable through a ceiling,
and I drilled into a water pipe.
I had a full mental shutdown. I
didn’t know what to do.
Ruben Gonzales: It was like
a waterfall, but now we know
where all the water valves are.
Are you able to hold events
right now?
Matthew Moody: A couple of
weeks ago, I got four phone
calls back to back from a city
inspector saying that we can’t
have events. I told them we’re
not, but it took a while into
the fourth phone call for him
to understand that watching
RuPaul’s Drag Race is like
watching the Super Bowl. He
said, “I need to call back. How
big is your stage?” “It’s exactly
zero inches. We don’t have a
stage,” I replied. He asks, “Are
people going to be dancing
with masks on?” He didn’t
know that it was a television
show. And he finally grasped it,
but the word “event” causes a
problem.
Since the day we opened, I
don’t think there hasn’t been a
public office that hasn’t been
called on us. When we started,
we got a “Stop Work” sign on
our window. And that’s not a
joke. And it’s because I started
posting pictures of our progress
as we go, so the community felt
part of what we were doing. All
that did was allow somebody
to make up stuff that was
happening in the photo that
wasn’t real and send it to the
inspector’s office.
Ruben Gonzales: The city
manager came in with a stack of
photos. He saw what we were
doing, and he was so annoyed
that he had to come in.
It amazes me that people have
the time to call and complain.
Matthew Moody: It’s so we
wouldn’t exist or be competition
to their favorite place. One of
the things we’ve said from the
beginning is that we didn’t want
to compete with anyone. We
thought there were missing
pieces in our community. There
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