Gera

Gera – “Our side of Keen street is probably one of the lowest points in Lismore so we ended up with almost 2 metres of water in the cafe. Nothing could be salvaged, everything was gone. Toward the end of the day we knew it was going to go over the levee but we didn’t know how high. We lifted everything as high as we could but obviously it wasn’t enough. Everything was gone, the fridges, equipment, coffee machine, the lot.

We have had to replace everything. Everything is new. After the clean up one of the big stories is the mural we found on the wall. The wall was covered with cement fibre sheeting which was cracked and bubbling. It had to come down as there was water between it and the brick behind. I wanted the brick anyway and as soon as it came off we found the mural. We went through a whole process of trying to find out who did it. A lot of people saw the article in The Northern Star and on Facebook where we were trying to find out it’s origin. Eventually we found out it was painted in 1977 . We also found the people who commissioned it and the artist who painted it. The painting was done when the shop which was only open for a year was selling arts from Papua New Guinea. They commissioned Andy Jackson to paint the mural based on one of the art pieces they had from a school in PNG. Andy came and retouched it for us and he also did the new signs for the cafe.

The name change is something I wanted to do. The name One One 4 didn’t really sit with what we were trying to do here any more. We wanted our own identity. The business is far away from what it was when I purchased it in spirit. The flood seemed like the right time to do it. If there was ever a point where we should start fresh, this was it.

We chose Benchtop Espresso. We have a bench and we have coffee (laughs). New name, new logo and new art space with a new sitting area.

We thought it was good opportunity as well to give back. We had so much help and support right after the flood from the community, from people coming to clean, to people donating. This month we are giving 10% of all coffee sales back to charity. Unfortunately the Lismore Flood Appeal is no longer accepting donations but we have been in contact with St Vinnies for one and they still collect donations to help those affected in the floods.

We also have a few Lismore signature drinks that carry the red heart. We are introducing those over July and 50% of the sale of those drinks will go back to Lismore. We have settled on 3 to start with. We have a Cardamom and Rosewater Coffee. It’s a nice option which will go well as both a black or white coffee. It gives a bit of a Middle Eastern twist. We also have Salted Caramel and Popcorn and the last one is Jaffa, Orange Blossom and Dark Chocolate. We may have an option which is caffeine free but we are still playing with that. They will all carry the red heart of Lismore.”