Hotel Metropole, or The Met, as locals know it, is under new management after the well-known pub was finally sold recently for an undisclosed amount. The building itself remains under the ownership of Nick and Kerrilee Lake.

Nick and Kerrilee purchased the property in 2021 and began renovating the derelict building, which had been closed since 2016.

The Met was Nick's first foray into pubs, and he said he found it "pretty challenging" when he put the For Sale sign up in August 2023 with a $3 million price tag. 18 months later, having sold the business, Nick can spend more time with his teenage kids and his other local energy business.

The new owners, Bikash Dhungana and Upendra Lamsal, are Nepalese and come with an experienced background in pubs and restaurants from Sydney to Nambucca, such as Lake Cathie (near Port Macquarie), Singleton and Rutherford (near Newcastle).

"We've been doing this for a long time," Bik told the Lismore App. Bikash and Upendra have been business partners since 2014, when they purchased The Duke Hotel in Newton.

So, why Lismore?

"I just wanted to travel up the coast. I'm just sick of doing one thing at the same time, so I just need a change. So, this is sort of like a change for me, and a challenge as well. I can't just stay in one place doing the same thing."

Bikash is looking for a sea change after the birth of his first baby in August and moving to Nambucca Heads, leaving a shorter commute to The Met to keep an eye on his investment.

In the short term, Bik is not looking to make any drastic changes.

"I'm just trying to keep it as a local pub. It's going to be a proper, solid, modern bistro in the dining room here. We'll provide modern Australian food, like schnitzel and palmy, but we'll be doing it a different way. We just add a twist to it all the time. So whenever you walk in here, you'll see something different."

Any renovations Bik wants to do will happen slowly over time, so the pub won't have to close down for any length of time. He also said that poker machines were not in The Met's future.

"I'm not going to go for a pokey license or anything like that, I just want to keep it a as local pub with a drink and a good meal."

"In a couple of weeks' time, we'll probably do a new wine list, new spirits and everything. And we still want to keep doing the music kind of thing, but not the way that it was before. It was not well organised. There were good bands playing here, but there was no one to listen to them. So I'm trying to create the audience for them as well at the same time.

"That's why I stopped the music at the moment. But it doesn't mean that we're not going to have music in here. We'll have music, but just not for the time being."

The Met is also hiring right now. Bikash is looking for bar staff, so if you or someone you know is looking for bar work, Keetah is the person you need to see at Hotel Metropole on Keen Street, Lismore CBD.

Keetah was managing The Met for Nick Lake and will continue as manager for Bikash as well.