AT midday today pubs, licensed clubs, cafés and restaurants were ordered to close by the latest Federal government regulations to control coronavirus.

A quick trip around town revealed a sad trend, life is going to be very tough for all of our local businesses that had indoor dining options.

Johnny and Oliver at MoJo Espresso Bar in Goonellabah said they are still open and doing take-away only and by card only so no cash transactions.

This was the common theme among all owners of cafés I visited in the next hour throughout Lismore.

Blue Kitchen in South Lismore, Raw Energy in North Lismore, Bluey's in Woodlark Street, Café Capello in Carrington Street and the Garden Plate in Woodlark Street. All of these venues are still open and doing take-aways.

Blue Kitchen was working on home deliveries in addition to take-aways but needed the final tick of approval from the Health Inspector for Lismore, Carmon Smith.

The sad trend I mentioned earlier is that business will be down a predicted 50% in the coming weeks. As you can imagine, if you have rent to pay you need to sell a lot of coffees and take-away lunches to at least pay that figure as well as staff.

How sympathetic are landlords going to be? It depends on who your owner is.

Johnny and Oliver at MoJo said their landlord has already waived their rent for the coming months while John and Bluey's said he hasn't asked yet but doesn't like his chances.

Tony at Café Capello has dropped his lunch prices to encourage people to come and buy their take-away lunches and has changed his opening times to 5:30am to 1pm.

When it came to understanding what the federal government is offering in terms of available assistance as part of Scott Morrison's second $66 billion stimulus package, everyone was confused and didn't understand how it would help their businesses stay a float.

Most said that was with their accountants.

Pubs and licensed clubs like the Gollan, Mary G's, the Civic and Lismore Heights Bowling Club are closed. If they have a bottle shop attached then this is still open and trading.

Restaurants are another follow up as most are closed on Mondays anyway. We can tell you that Uncle Lims is closed until further notice.

As you just read, life is tough for quite a few business owners as of midday today. We can help.

Don't think they are closed they are not. You can ring and order your lunch for pick-up or turn up order and eat outside. The very existence of cafés in our community depends on us and how we support them.

The Lismore App wants to remind you to support local businesses at this time. Your patronage keeps the doors open and protects the livelihoods of people in our community.