ASTRID M
CORMACK
You can’t really plan a year like the one Astrid
McCormack and Josh Lewis have just had.
The owners of Fleet, the restaurant that put the
northern New South Wales coastal town of Brunswick
Heads (population 1737) on the map, have spent the
past 12 months nurturing recent additions Ethel Food
Store and Mexican cantina La Casita while keeping
Fleet riding its wave of critical acclaim.
On top of that you can add the fact that the local
population rose to 1738 in April with the arrival of
daughter Isla.
“It does tend to be all or nothing with us,” says
McCormack. “I’ve had my highest highs and my
lowest lows this year. I probably wouldn’t recommend
to anyone to open another two businesses when you
have one that already takes up all your time, and
then throw a baby into the mix.”
Their first child announced herself during
renovations on the dilapidated Gringo’s Fresh Mex
site late last year. “We were busy fixing it up and I
just thought, ‘Why am I so tired?’ I’d been told I
couldn’t conceive naturally and we were looking at
IVF so it was a real shock. A happy shock, though.”
Stepping away from the day-to-day operation
of Fleet has been something of a reckoning for
McCormack, who ran the envelope-sized 14-seater
as an integral part of the three-person team with Lewis
on the pans and Rob Mudge on the drinks. Going
from working full-time on the floor to staying at home
with a colicky, unsettled baby was a period of radical
adjustment. Deep in the trenches with a newborn
baby feeding around the clock every 45 minutes for the
first 10 weeks saw her entirely miss the month of May.
“I thought it was May 1st and Josh said, no babe, it’s
June. The whole month just disappeared in a haze.”
The first few times she visited Fleet, baby in
tow, it was confronting to see someone else in her
habitual role.
“I didn’t realise how much my sense of identity
was tied up in the restaurant until I left, and Josh
struggled with it as well. I’m okay with it now. We go
in every day just to see him. I wish I could clone him.”
The duo deserves to spend 2020 sipping tea with
their feet up, but augurs aren’t exactly promising.
They’re in the process of turning the space next
door to Fleet into their next project: a wine bar
with snacks, which they hope to open by mid-2020.“It will definitely be nice and small again;
we love a three-person team,” says McCormack.
“It wasn’t part of our larger plan but when the
opportunity came up, we just couldn’t not do it –
but that’s what we always say. I was thinking recently
that I’d love a bit of calm in 2020 but I’ve got to
be realistic. It’s probably not going to happen.”
It’s not uncommon for the arrival of a baby to
usher in a period of reflection. For McCormack,
it’s given her a new zeal for the industry.
“So often during my pregnancy people would
say that a baby puts life and work into perspective.
And it has, but not in the way I imagine they meant.
For me it has magnified everything. Some things
do seem less important. The washing can wait! But
more than anything I want to create a life for my
daughter and our family. I want to be a role model
for her. It’s given me renewed drive to be the very
best that we can be in our industry.”