“N – We had bought this building to set up a wine bar down stairs with the idea to put our offices upstairs. This has been in the works for 8 months now and we finally got our DA through in January but we hadn’t started building. We were waiting for our construction certificate so thanks to the tardiness of the Council, they saved us. The flood would have taken it all out. We are hoping to open in about 3 months time. Our liquor license is approved. We really want to provide a positive space. We own the building so we may as well open a wine bar. It’s great that The Metropole have come back so quickly….I know that’s made a huge difference.
We want to make this a very inclusive space so totally Queer friendly and catering more to us oldies (laughs). Nice wines, good beers, tasty music. We are not really pub people so we want to open somewhere we would like to go to. Our plan is to have Wednesday nights as event nights so some comedy nights, some trivia, some speed dating perhaps, drag, a bit of everything.
K – Prior to the flood we had Kate Stroud come on board. We had all the branding done, the logo, we were working on the website, it was all beautiful. All we really needed was the Wine and the food list and then we had the flood. We thought..Oh Gosh, can we still call it The Levee with everything that Lismore’s gone through? We consulted widely with people like Kate who was stuck in her roof, people who have had awful experiences to make sure it would be ok. Kate just said, Hell Yeah! This is Lismore, fighting spirits. It’s like a F@#k you flood, you can’t beat us.
N – We want to create a cosy space where people can come and be with friends and a strong focus on music too. We want to do Thursday nights and Sunday afternoon music so that will be good for the town as well.
K – We were so excited earlier this year. There were new cafe’s opening up and Lismore was so vibrant and literally just before the floods we said..Oh isn’t Lismore going off at the moment, it’s so great and we will be adding our little wine bar. Now it’s very different but we want to be part of the rebuild and part of bringing back that Lismore vibe. We have a courtyard too so it will be so nice to sit out with the fairy lights. We are looking for good staff and a fantastic cocktail person. We really want to employ local people who have lost their jobs locally.
So The Levee it is and we will be a levee that will never let you down. There will always be good music, good food and a friendly face.”