“ What we try to do here in the set up is re-use. We’ve had very minimal waste on this site. We’ve used offcuts of sleepers for supports for bars. All offcuts are saved. All our timber comes from Big Scrub timbers so all local.
Our wives have been heavily involved. Andrew’s wife Frances has done so much behind the scenes. My wife Kim is a renovator / builder. She built the wet bar and she did all the kids area including building the cubby house. Frances has been heavily involved in the Produce side of things and developing all the artwork, our graphics and social media. Our kids have all been involved. Our older kids will be here working. Our younger kids will be working out the back in the glass area. All the kids have been involved in the whole journey and they are excited to be a part of it.
Not living in Lismore, this is the first time I’ve done something specifically in the region. I built the North and South tower on the Base hospital for a contractor and I worked on the gaol at Grafton. I also worked on another hospital in Coffs. Coming back here now, I can sense with the change around a new election, everyone’s really excited about the what if’s? I think businesses like ours and other businesses that are coming in like Blue Kitchen who will be opening at the old Railway station, Brad Rickard and his team who are doing really good things with The Loft, the guys at StockPot, Dirty’s in Keen St. There’s a lot of great, funky, foodie places, places where people can just go and hang out. Again we just compliment that. We will have a rotation of 6 or 7 local food vans. We have some great guys locked in – Junkyard, Earth Oven, the Bratwurst guys, Ugly Dumplings and more so great variety. We also have lots of great muso’s lined up.
The thing that we’ve really noticed here is the support from other businesses, welcoming us and everyone wants everyone to succeed. It’s really nice to see. On the flip-side there is also a minority of negativity around things, which you expect. It’s almost like some people want to see you fail and sadly those minorities have made the journey difficult at times for us.
Andrew-” It’s not the big developers coming into town. At the end of the day you have 2 families who have thrown everything into this. We haven’t called on anyone to help us back this, we’re doing it ourselves and we’re doing it for the region. We followed what the strategic plans asked for, the vision of what they want to do for regrowth and regeneration and we’re doing exactly that. Add to the problems we’ve faced is Covid. All these other issues we’ve carried then throw in a pandemic. It’s been extraordinary times.
Grant – “ We’re pretty proud of what we’ve produced and what we’ve held together. We come from a background of team sport which is where the Two Mates thing comes from. Everything we’ve driven around this about being united and the adversity we’ve faced through this would sometimes break people. We’ve not only got a business relationship but we have a very solid personal family relationship. One thing we’ve said through this process is it doesn’t matter what happens we’d never let it impact that. It means more to me than the business. I’d throw away a million dollars before I’d throw away a relationship or a family relationship. I think that is one of the elements which has been the key for us to be able to continue. We haven’t given up.
We go through these cycles of up and down where one’s low then the other one’s low and we carry each other through. It’s a bit like the old Battle of Attrition, the old war in the trenches type thing but at the end of the day we get to the bar in the arvo, have a beer and talk about what we’ve done and who we hate (laughs) then we get up the next day and do the same shit.
The Craft industry are very much built around the journey. People think you’re building a brewery and people see the sugar on top and how good it is to have a brewery. They don’t see what’s in behind it and what’s involved. It’s phenomenal, all the way back. You are continually juggling all the way to the line. Obviously you have the operational things of the business but the big part is how you evolve as a business once we go to market. How many beers are we going to bring on?..what other products?… What events? And it’s just us, our 2 wives who stand beside up and our kids. We do it all off the back of no brewery experience. Plenty of experience on the other side of the bar (laughs). We’ve learnt so much and will continue to do so.”
Footnote – Two Mates will be sharing some exciting news this week so follow their socials.