There’s about a decade of Daina Winch’s life she describes as a blur.
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Those days were filled with running multiple restaurants, a function space and a food store, while raising three children.
“There were probably 10 years where I was a shell and just so tired,” she said.
“When the kids were babies, in between working, feeding, getting kids to school; it’s a blur.”
The Shepparton Brewery co-owner has been in the hospitality business, alongside partner of 24 years Matt Milsome, since she was in her mid-20s.
When they returned to business with the brewery in 2019, Daina decided she would take a step back and do things a bit differently.
After working in hospitality, it was natural for Daina and Matt to step out on their own.
They built a great reputation and client base with a kitchen lease at a Nagambie winery and even after they moved back to Melbourne, decided to return to the Goulburn Valley.
Daina was 26 when they opened Teller in the old Mooroopna bank building.
“Matt’s six years older and he’s the chef side of it — it was just the perfect storm, front of house and back of house, that’s quite traditional with hospitality owners,” she said.
They also opened The Chairman’s Kitchen in Fryers St, Shepparton, across the road from The Vic Hotel.
“We were trying to run two places and I had a five-month-old baby and then someone approached us and wanted to buy it as a bar,” Daina said.
“We ended up deciding to move into Shepparton, just as the next step for our business, and we built The Teller Collective.”
During that time Daina recalls saying, “that’s it, I’m never having another restaurant”.
Famous last words.
They had three children aged under five, were running restaurants and function space the Vault, and then, the shop next door came up for sale, which became the Food Store.
Albi, Ava and Austin are now 15, 13 and 11 respectively, and all grew up in the restaurant — when they weren’t with their grandparents in Cobram or family day care.
But the nature of the work meant while Daina and Matt were often run off their feet, they still had time with the kids.
“Matt would start at five o’clock to make all the bread and Albi would just walk downstairs as a five-year-old and have porridge with Dad at six,” Daina said.
“It’s those little things you wouldn’t get in a normal work life.”
Whether it was a baby sleeping on a shelf in the kitchen, being passed to the least busy staff member when they wouldn’t settle, or strapped to Daina while she was making coffees — they made it work.
As the business grew, Daina and Matt brought in business partners before eventually selling out and moving to Beechworth.
Daina managed Brown Brothers restaurant for a few years and she and Matt had a “role reversal”, as he worked around the kids’ schedules.
“We decided, we’re out — that was it,” she said.
“But I think it’s just in your blood.”
So, in April 2019 they opened Shepparton Brewery and 11 months later the pandemic arrived, delivering a crushing blow to business owners.
“In that first year of the pandemic, if the government wasn’t propping us up with grants for people with liquor licences, you just wouldn’t be here,” Daina said.
“We obviously have a lot of experience in business; I can’t imagine being us at 24 and having our back to the wall the way that we did then and trying to get through [COVID-19].”
And while the world tries to move on, the situation is still fraught with staff shortages, high fuel prices and rising interest rates.
The couple have plans to take their new gin venture, Side Hustle, to another level but are still feeling the after-effects of COVID-19.
“A couple of weeks in the past month or so, we’ve been down three staff and I’ve had to replace them with my 15-year-old and my 13-year-old — three staff with two kids,” Daina said.
“Customers have been great, but the damage that could have done to the business — people understand, but they’re only going to understand so far.”
Giving back to the community is important to Daina and Matt, whether it’s through their Community Chest nights or Christmas meals.
When the couple first opened in Mooroopna with mediocre kitchen equipment that was all they could afford, they were blown away by people’s generosity.
“One day the oven door fell off and I had a function coming in and the café was going, and I just had to say, ‘this is off the menu, I can’t do it’,” Daina said.
“I’d been bawling my eyes out, Matt’s cracked it — it’s pretty high pressure — and this couple said to me, ‘Daina, we’ll buy you an oven’.
“People were just so kind and we didn’t take them up on the offer but to know you were backed like that.
“This community has taken us in as a business and I feel grateful we’re here — we do try to filter that back when we can.”
These days, when Daina’s not working at the brewery, she has a few days a week doing the paperwork, picking up the kids from school and being home for them.
“You’re constantly ‘on’, but that’s just part of being in business — same as being a mum,” she said.
Daina’s advice to anyone thinking of opening a business is to enjoy it, and “do it because you love it”.
“And never ever count your hourly rate because you just don’t want to know.”
This story originally appeared in Betty Magazine. You can find the full publication at https://www.sheppnews.com.au/features-and-magazines/betty-magazine-2022/