It Takes a Village with Astrid Delmenico
BACK TO FUN STUFFIt takes a village to bring Eagle Bay Brewing Co. to life, and with every village its people are its backbone. As part of our It Takes A Village journal, we catch up with some of the people that make our village so vibrant. Meet Astrid Delmenico, one of the co-founders of Eagle Bay.
The sister of the trio, Astrid has been involved in the brewery and restaurant since its inception. Astrid grew up in the south west before moving to Perth to study Environmental Science at University. She spent her former life consulting in environmental approvals for land development, before she returned home and made the jump to join her brothers Edge and Nick in creating Eagle Bay Brewing Co.
“When I got the opportunity to become involved in this family brewery operation, I quit my job, jumped on board and haven’t looked back. I loved the idea because I love the farm, and I knew that we always wanted to keep the farm in the family, Mum and Dad wanted to add another string to the farm’s bow – in addition to cattle, wool and grapes, which is how we ended up here.”
“Being able to keep the farm family owned and operated is really important to me and so I left my environmental science career to start the brewery with Edge and Nick.”
“You’d be surprised, there are a lot of transferrable skills, such as organising the approvals and dealing with the various government agencies. Starting a small business requires a complex myriad of approvals. I get to do all the fun paperwork.”
As well as dealing with all the paperwork, Astrid spent years on the floor running plates and pouring pints, alongside a stint as General Manager of EBBC, before she stepped out of the daily operations and moved back up to Perth to start a family. She now works on special projects, most recently working on approvals for our new garden bar space.
“My role is to assist the General Manager with running our top line business strategy. I’m still involved in day-to-day decision making and come down as often as I can because I love to be on site, connecting with the team. One of my focuses is on how we can create a great team dynamic, through having robust systems and processes in place and understanding the journey our team have while they are with us. How can we be a great employer and make that journey as smooth as possible? How can our team learn while they are on their journey with us?”
“I think it is important you understand the journey a team member has in your company, so you can set them up for success, make them feel comfortable and welcome, make sure they understand what is expected and how they contribute value. We try and give them as much information as we can prior to starting, so that when they walk in on day one, they’re going to feel confident, they know the key faces and people, and they can start to make a contribution.”
“The brewery is a lot bigger than we initially conceived it would be. It’s been a real pleasure to see it grow, to see people walking in and taking photos and enjoying the view because they love the open spaces of the farm, the ocean in the distance, the beautiful trees, the livestock, the birds and the kangaroos!”
“The location of the brewery is a special place that we used to come and have a drink as a family. We would grab some deck chairs and sit under the trees and have a picnic and a beer. It has taken a lot of hard work to get from a few deck chairs under a tree to this point, but we still love it and it is still our happy place, and it is lovely to be able to share it with so many people.”
What is your favourite Eagle Bay beer?
Pale Ale is always my favourite but in winter I quite like a stout.
Favourite local go-tos?
Eagle Bay Olives for a burger and a coffee. It’s so casual and always great.
Yarri or Lady Lola for dinner.
All of the beaches between Meelup and Eagle Bay. When you drive along that coastal road and you can pull in at Point Piquet or any of the other really small car parks along there and often find a beach with no one on it. In the winter I love walking the Meelup Loop Trail and the Rocky Point trail. Now that we have a puppy, we go to the dog beach at Eagle Bay all the time!
Favourite dish on our menu?
My current go-to is the pumpkin salad add feta and chicken.