Matthew Dunn is the new owner of the iconic Mecca Cafe on Magellan Street. Little is known of the man who has taken over the business, so the Lismore App had a chat with Matthew last week.

Matthew moved to the Northern Rivers 11 years ago, buying a property on the river at Wyrallah. When he came to Lismore and walked past the Mecca, and on subsequent visits, he noticed it was packed before work, and he started to meet people. From then, he built an affinity with the Mecca Cafe.

How it came to be in Matthew's hands involves the 2022 flood.

"I was in the flood, and I did two years of no electricity, broken windows, all of that, but I wanted to stay, and I thought I could fix it. The government said, 'No, you're on the river; we want you to buy back.' I haggled with the price. Eventually, I took it.

"Then I met the owners, Jeff and Bev, and they're like 80. Their kids are overseas, and they're trying to renovate this themselves; they just couldn't do it anymore. I became friends, went and got a crazy commercial loan, which is near impossible for a flood, but because the people knew the Mecca and the owners, they all knew each other, and it happened.

Matthew said his buyback money was not enough to complete the transaction, so he had to borrow "off some randoms" to get the deal done.

"I moved upstairs, and now I've got to fix it," Matthew said.

By trade, Matthew is a plumber, so he is pretty handy on the tools. On top of those skills, he has experience in rebuilding cafes overseas.

I hitchhiked around the world for 12 years. Heaps of mates built restaurants and did things, and I just always helped, so in Balmain, in 2000, I slept on the floor of a mate's cafe called Mojo, because they stuffed it up, for four months and rebuilt it for free. My friends run restaurants and build restaurants."

For those customers worried about Matthew changing the retro feel of the Mecca, worry no longer; he is embracing its history.

"Everything stays the same. Everything's retro. It's 100 years old in two years, and I'm obliged to keep it the same. And it's so good anyway, you wouldn't want it any different.

"Look at the tiles. A lady came in the other day who does mosaics. She said it cost 50,000 at least to do the floor, so every tile is coloured right through and hand-laid. I love it.

"It's surreal. It feels like I've broken into a pub on Friday night because I'm upstairs and security are going to kick me out. I'm just waiting for the knock on the door, and when I walk past the tenants, because there's two flats and that got me in the loan, without that, I wouldn't have got it, but I tiptoe past their doors and sort of say sorry, because I feel like they're going to kick me out."

It's only been a week since Mathew opened the doors and started serving coffee, but the community feedback has been strong.

"One guy, nailed it. He said, I haven't recovered from the flood until the Mecca is open, and he just had his hands up going 'Yes', and walked out again. And I think half the town it's the same. The Mecca is so iconic. Everyone's grandmother had a birthday here. Until the Mecca's open, we're not recovered. And I believe that too."

At the moment, Matthew is serving coffee to generate some cash flow. The dishwasher was hoping to be in and ready by last Friday. This week, the stove will hopefully be ready for action.

"I reckon next week tasted sangers, at a minimum, and probably cereals and milkshakes, hopefully, and cups. This is a big step from this week, which is just coffee in paper cups.

"So, I reckon in about two weeks, there'll be some egg and bacon rolls, cereals, and I reckon in a month, it's the proper chef pumping out a menu, if I go hard for a month

Matthew knows the Mecca is not where he would like it to be, but he is happy with where he is at in terms of the rebuild, and the patronage.

"This feels good. Look at it now. It's buzzing. I'm smiling."

"My ultimate goal, and this sounds crazy, is to see the street full of people and happy. I lived in Europe for 12 year, hitchhiking my round, including Greece. All the shop owners were friends, the kids are out the front, it was such a good energy.

"I'll do the cafe seven days a week, how it is, probably Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Another chef does four nights a week with a different menu. Out the back, on the alleyway, I'm going to build a small area so people can have birthday parties and small gigs. That alleyway gets the winter sun.

Matthew gave Lismore City Council a big wrap for his vision and the fact he needs to fix the Mecca bit by bit because he is out of money.

"They're so happy. I'm actually a plumber, so I know what you need to do, but I don't have the money. They're like, as you fix it, you can do it, instead of fixing everything at once. They're going, what a good idea, what a good idea. So, they're happy for everything, but I have to go through them."

Matthew Dunn has already had quite a journey to get to the Mecca to this point in time, and there is a lot of work to go. In typical Lismore fashion, he has rolled his sleeves up and is having a crack.