“I bought the business in January after not having much luck getting work so I decided to create a job for myself. The opportunity came up here and immediately i could see that something could be done with the courtyard and also the fact that only coffee was being served here so I could see an opening for food.
The duck pond down the back was originally used in the 20’s to the 40’s as a common swimming hole for the locals and they had swimming carnivals down there. A guy brought in a photo of his grandfather down there in the 1930’s in a band. It was quite an active area, lots of social gatherings, there were bath houses. There was also a football oval down there once upon a time and now Landcare is doing an amazing job looking after it. We’re actually having a fundraiser here for Landcare next Friday night. Since I was roped in to become president of the South Lismore Progress association we have bought them a ride on mower to help look after the area down there. We also bought a defibrillator for the Chemist and donated to the cancer fundraiser at the Bowling Club.
So anyway, I saw great potential here with this great outlook. It’s the only place in Lismore where you can come and have a peaceful coffee and see the river. If you’re down the back now you can see the river which you couldn’t see at all when I bought the business. Since I’ve had the business it’s increased by 300% which is good and I can even pay myself a little bit now. I really enjoy it, such a great, diverse range of customers and that’s a big part of what I like. I’m loving it and I’m not going anywhere.”