While our Covid-19 world has brought some big changes globally, here in Lismore, there’s a semblance of life as we used to know it coming back.

Once upon a time, people would go to cafes and sit down at tables and eat. In this fairytale world, people could mingle with friends, and even draw up a few extra chairs around table and sip lattes while chatting.

Now, the fairytale is slowly coming back to life.

As restrictions ease, some local cafes have opened up their seating arrangements again after weeks of either being closed, or doing only take away food and coffee.

The Lismore App explored Lismore to find out what it’s like in this new sit-down cafe world.

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Dragonfly and the Mecca

Happy sit down coffee drinkers at Dragonfly Cafe.

First stop was Dragonfly café. With the café restricted to ten sitting customers only, it’s recommended that you book ahead if you want to ensure a seat at a table this week.

You can still order your take away coffees and food and sit elsewhere, even if the café is already full, but if you want to sit at the café, you will definitely need to order food, not just coffee.

The Mecca Café has a few tables and chairs on the street, but is also still running on its Covid-19 take away menu and also has a limit on customers allowed to sit.

The Pie Cart is bringing life back to dining outside.

Café Capello

Cafe Capello owner Tamaya Rose, said she was excited at the idea of being able to serve people coffee and have them sit down at one of the tables outside.

The Carrington Street café has ten chairs placed around its outside tables and Tamaya said when the chairs are full, she knows the café has reached capacity.

“We are still trading on our take away menu,” Tamaya said. “I was so excited when we knew we would be able to have people sitting here again.”

Life comes back to Cafe Capello.

Tamaya said the mood has lightened and feels that people are less fearful and starting to come out again.

“At the beginning, there was so much fear,” she said.

“Coffee sales went down at first, but came back up until we were selling the same amount of kilos of coffee as normal.”

After nine years of being in business, Tamaya is using the quieter time of Covid restrictions to revamp the café with a more contemporary look and bring “vigour” to the place.

The inside café sitting area is boarded off while the upgrade work takes place.

“The Covid time gave us a break and allowed us to find a work life balance again,” Tamaya said.

With two children at home, she and her husband have also been able to spend more time with their two small children.

Tamaya said the Government’s Jobkeeper package has been the saving grace for the business, allowing them to keep their staff and bring them all back on board.

“The only person we let go was our trainee,” she said.

The café is still trading on its take away pasta menu which Tamaya said was enthusiastically received by customers.

“We have been so well supported by our loyal customers through this,” Tamaya said.

“One of our customers who works nearby even made a decision to not bring his lunch from home, but to buy it from us each day.

“A lot of people have also discovered us for the first time because of Covid. They were looking online for somewhere different to buy coffee and found us.”

Regulations

Tamaya said she was grateful to Council’s health officer Cameron Smith, who came by last week to help them understand what the new requirements would be for cafes to open.

“It helped us decide what to do,” she said.

“We decided to keep operating on our take away menu so we don’t need to put on extra staff to meet regulations,” she said.

“We needed to make a few changes and have our dishie [dishwasher] come in early in the morning – and make sure everything is washed as soon as it is used.”

Tamaya said she’s happy to not rush anything in this new opening world, but things feel like they are getting back to normal again.

“Life goes on and we’re all good here," she said.

The Bank Café

The Bank Cafe owner Brad Rickard.

The Bank Café hasn’t yet opened for sit down dining yet, but owner Brad Rickard said he was gearing up for it, but wasn’t sure when yet.

“If we start with ten customers we can work out some of the issues we might get early,” he said. “I don’t want the shock of 40 people straight away, so a trial will be good.

“We’ve been plodding along – there’s a lot of rules to work with and it’s going to be tough.

“For dining in bookings, we need to record everyone’s details – their name and contact telephone number. We might need to hire a receptionist."

The Loft

Brad also owns the Loft restaurant and said it is already open for dining in – with a strict bookings only policy.

“The Loft is open for two sittings,” he said. “The first sitting is 5-6pm for arrivals, then again at 7.30pm.”