A Missing Taste of Home
Candy Berger was practically destined to open a bagel shop. Bagels are a part of who she is.
Bagels bring up so many memories – they’ve been in my life since I was a tiny little girl.”
Candy Berger → co-owner
“Having a Jewish background, we would eat bagels at all different occasions: birthdays, happy occasions, sad occasions”, she says.
She grew up around her family’s deli in the UK, before moving to the United States. Eventually, when she was 18, she moved to Sydney – and chose to live in Bondi, the city’s Jewish heartland.
“There’s a lot of Jewish people in the area, myself included,” she says. “When they came to Australia, they ended up in the eastern suburbs, Bondi specifically.”
But despite the prominent diaspora, she was surprised to find a lack of traditional options in the neighbourhood.
“There was just nowhere that I could get the same sort of food that I got growing up,” Berger says.
Bagels were calling her name. And after meeting her future wife and business partner Gaia Lovell, whose family also had a deli growing up, her fate was sealed.
There’s always been a community of people that were wanting this product, so I decided that if no one’s going to do it, I guess it’s going to be me.”
Candy Berger → co-owner
Bringing Bondi Its Bagel Shop
In 2019, Lox in a Box was born in Bondi. Berger was back in the bagel game.
And then came Covid. Her fledgling business would face its biggest test just months into opening. But instead of ending Lox in a Box before it really had a chance to begin, the lockdowns unlocked the neighbourhood spirit that’s been critical to the business’s success.
“I think Covid brought on the change in this area,” says Berger. “I love the community that’s here – I’ve seen a lot of new faces.”
A Community Built on Familiar Faces
Those new locals have become a key part of the area, joining many of Berger’s longtime friends, family, and now customers who call the suburb home.
“I love coming here in the mornings and seeing people I know from my past,” she says. “Even before I started the restaurant all my family friends were in the area – I grew up here and now I have my own family in this area.”
Honouring Tradition, Feeding a Neighbourhood
But Berger has done more than bringing her family to Bondi – she’s brought their recipes and traditions with her too. The bagels at Lox, unlike many of the more American-focused spots in Sydney, are all derived from the softer Polish-style ones she grew up eating.
“When we opened Lox, I was like, I’m not going to something that’s inauthentic to us as people,” she says. “It’s following tradition, following our roots – I just wanted to make our family proud, and I just hoped that everyone would like it too.”
And if Bondi’s response is any indication, the people like it a lot. Community has always shaped Candy Berger’s family. And now, her family’s shaping her community.
Want to know more about how Lox in a Box found the right neighbourhood to call home? Watch the Bondi Beach episode of our video series Good Neighbours. ->
