After two years of building a restaurant with a strong sense of community, Nathan Fleck and his wife Isla Stirling are bidding goodbye to Elma's on Clyde in Hamilton North.
The couple made the announcement on social media on Thursday, and will hand the business over to new owners on May 31.
Under the couple's management, the cafe was been rebranded as Elma's, which is a nod to the history of the site that was once home to the Electric Lamp Manufacturers Australia factory. The lamp works was founded in 1923 and became the country's main producer of lightbulbs, employing thousands of people in the region until the company folded in 2002.
Fleck, who had run restaurants and bars in South-East Asia, and Isla, a project manager, fell in love with the space upon inspection when they first took it on. They recognised its potential to work as a cafe by day and a relaxed eatery and bar by night, and that is exactly what they achieved.
"Some of our suppliers, they call it an institution," Fleck says. "That was always the goal."
"We got into as a means to an end," Fleck says. "It was the way to meet the Newcastle community and find our way into it."
They are staying in Newcastle, with plans to build a home at Fletcher, with Fleck taking a position selling solar panels, and having more family time.
Fleck says Elma's will be in good hands with the family who is taking it on. He says loyal and dedicated staff will remain, and the new owners have been briefed on all the technical systems which make the business run so smoothly.
