Truck Hours
Come Visit
Monday - Saturday: 6.30am - 3pm
Closed Sunday and Public Holidays
We Are Lismore Pie Cart
Operating since 1947 (then known as 'Lismore Caravan Cafe'), we have a long history of excellent service, value for money and exceptional food.
Keeping our feet firmly planted within Lismore and the local community, we use predominately local produce and suppliers to create wholesome, nutritious and tasty food that has delighted generations of folks from Lismore and the surrounding areas.
So, if you haven't been told to visit us already by one of the locals, come on down and taste why we have been operating for over 78 years... It'll take you back to a time when less was more, and more was affordable...
The Story
A very brief outline...
1947 - 1967
Lismore Caravan Cafe
Jack & Rose Hamilton
The Caravan Cafe was established by Jack & Rose Hamilton in 1947. After WW2 Jack was injured while building concrete silos, so needed to find less strenuous work. He saw the Café de Wheels in Sydney and believing that “everyone needs to eat” thought that a similar concept would work in Lismore.
Evans Head
Over the Christmas period, the caravan which was still mobile, was taken to Evans Head and parked on the Southern side of the Illawong Hotel.
During this time Rose would cook up steak and eggs on the hot plate that was set up along the end of the cart.
1967 - 1995
Lismore Caravan Cafe
Kevin & Nita Lawrence
Kevin & Nita took over the Caravan Café in September of 1967.
For the first 4 years until 1972 Nita worked in the café alongside Kevin’s mother, Verna (affectionately known as Loncie) and Daphne Gronin, who worked part time.
In 1972 the arrival of children for Kevin & Nita meant that Nita took a less hands on role in the café, while Kevin started running the Cafe and completing his school bus run.
Kevin and Nita did not continue the annual pilgrimage to Evans Head as the Hamiltons had done, however made weekly trips to the Lismore Races and also the Ballina Races. Both Race Clubs made provisions for the Cart, installing a water and power supply for the cart to use.
1995 - unknown
Ridgey Didge Pies
(Franchise - Names unknown)
In 1995 the Caravan café was sold to 2 gentlemen from Coffs Harbour who were involved with the franchise “Ridgey Didge Pies”. They rebranded the cart at this time, removing the Richmond Cordials, and icecream signage and changing to the Ridgey Didge branding.
Works were undertaken inside the cart at this time to make space for the ovens required to cook the pies which included the removal of the bed and chairs at the front of the van.
Ridgey Didge changed the offering of the cart to primarily, pies, veggies and drinks, doing away with the more traditional meals that were offered previously.
After the 2001 floods, when the current levee gates were installed at the entrance to the rowing club carpark, the then called Ridgey Didge pie van was moved temporarily across to its current position in Magellan St. Greg petitioned council to gain the space in front of the old post office (where it sits currently) traders in Magellan St were given an opporuitnity to weigh in and Council discussed the issue of the new site for many months.
Once in the new spot, Greg fully restored the van to its former glory.
In October 2006, a car crossed the footpath and crashed into the dining area, destroying chairs, a table and damaging a large tree. Thankfully, no one was hurt but the cart was closed for 24 hours for the clean up.
Unknown - 2008
Lismore Pie Cart
Greg Jeromson
2008 - 2014
Lismore Pie Cart
Larry & Nardi Endres
Unfortunately, no information has been able to be obtained from this period
Kim & Sharon took over the cart in February of 2014.
After Sharon’s husband, Brett, owner of Dalley Street Butchery, had a long standing relationship with the cart as their meat supplier. Having that relationship made for a smoother transition.
On taking over, a commercial kitchen was set up at Kim & Colins home at Modanville. This was a great solution because Sharon would have a baby in the July and that meant the baby could come to work and work could be done during naps. The pies were made (average of 800 per day) by Sharon and Kim, and all the cooking, sausage rolls and pastry cutting done by Colin. In the early days, some days stretched to 10+ hours. All the existing staff were kept at the actual cart, who continued the daily running of the business.
Late in 2014, we installed a coolroom at the back of the pie cart, this meant we could store far more pies, and also meant we could have a day off once in a while! This was great for events such as Eat The Street and The Lantern Parade; during these events we could sell 2-3 times our normal daily amounts of pies, which we could never have managed without the extra storage.
In late 2015, the building that Dalley St Butchery was in came up for sale. This was a great opportunity to move to town and be closer to our biggest supplier. After months of fighting with Council, we opened up our Dalley St shop in January 2016. This would become our new kitchen and bakery. This shop was a great success to us as we had a second shop front with far more storage than the cart – it allowed us to go into bulk pies for pie drives and also keep a range of frozen family pies on display. Family pies became one of our best markets.
In 2017 we watched anxiously as river heights rose, due to the new levee, everything we knew about floods in the CBD was lost. We waited til the flood reached 9 metres before making the very difficult decision to remove the cart from town. Not as easy as it sounds as it hadn’t been driven for over 10 years! Plumbing and electricity were disconnected, everything was packed onto the floor, and it was driven out by Colin at 10pm in the pouring rain. We went the wrong way up the one way street, over across Ballina St bridge to a high area in South Lismore industrial estate. We were devastated when the water breached the levee in the early hours of the next morning, but so grateful that we were one of the lucky few who didn’t suffer direct water damage.
We saw great Lismore Spirit when we could get downtown a few days later, with lots of locals offering to help clean up, and help us get the truck back into her rightful place. The next few months were tough ones, with Lismore CBD having taken a huge hit and a lot of businesses having never reopened. We remain so grateful were able to return to trade almost immediately, and we felt it was our duty to do so for the Lismore people.
2018 and 2019 bought more of the same, we trailed new recipes, changed our staffing until we felt we had a great balance of products and people.
2020 bought all its own challenges. No-one knew what Covid would bring and whether we would even be allowed to continue to open. We were lucky enough to be allowed to continue to trade for take away, which we were already set up to do.
History is still being written - please wait whilst we sharpen our pencils...
2014 - Present
Lismore Pie Cart
Sharon Restall & Kim Baker
