It’s the first day of his running Dragonfly cafe and new owner Angus O’Neill is still smiling, despite the mandate from the Federal Government that all cafes can serve takeaway food and drinks only.

Pubs, clubs, restaurants, cafés will close today

Angus said he and his mother are long time Lismore locals who decided to take on Dragonfly Café because they love the place and had been coming to it for years to drink their coffee.

“It’s unfortunate timing that this has all happened because of coronavirus on our first day of trading as new owners,” Angus said. 

But Angus has a plan to keep the customers happy and drinking their coffee, even if they can’t have it on the premises.

“We are offering a door to car service and people can make payment over the phone, so there’s no cross contamination of cash," he said.

“We also have a new menu with lower prices, and people can order multiple meals for the day or week.

“We won’t have as many staff in the restaurant, so that allows us to reduce the price.

“We are looking to see it through and looking to keep on as many staff as we can with the subsidies offered by the government.

“It will be difficult, but we will push through and try our best.

“We will do whatever we can to make sure our customers are getting the service they want.

One of the new offerings on the Dragonfly coffee menu is a ’21 gram’ coffee.

“It’s more coffee and more bang for your buck,” Angus said. “There more cream and flavour to the coffee. It’s more like what you might expect in top cafes in Laigon Street in Melbourne.

“It’s a small extra cost to us, but we won’t be passing that extra cost on to customers. We just want to make sure everybody is enjoying their coffee.”

Dragonfly will continue to be open Monday to Friday 7am-5pm, Saturday 7am-2.30pm and Sunday 7.30am-2pm. You can phone them on 6622 6556.