The Shop & Wine Bar. Such a modest, unassuming name for a place so important to Bondi – and Sydney. Depending on who you ask, it could be described as either the best café in the neighbourhood, or the best wine bar in the area. The truth is, it’s both.
Sydney’s vino aficionados would probably want to tell you all about how The Shop was one of the first cafés in the city to have a liquor licence. Back then – well over 20 years ago – the only places in town you could really get a drink was at a pub or a nightclub. The notion of a small neighbourhood bar, with a thoughtful wine selection and few things to nibble on, was foreign. Totally out there.
I don’t think there was anywhere in Bondi you could come for a glass of wine and a cheese platter or a salad.”
Lucy Haskas → co-owner
These days, it’s hard not to stumble upon a good wine bar, wherever in Sydney you might happen to find yourself. Not back then. Whether they know it or not, most of these spots are walking in the footsteps of The Shop.
Pioneering Bondi’s Neighbourhood Bar Scene
It took a while for locals to warm to the concept.
“It was never busy at night,” Haskas says. “So that was my dream – I wanted to be as busy at night as during the day; make it more friendly for that kind of environment.”
Her and husband Mike got to work. They brought in DJs to do sets with Ipods and tinny speakers. They tuned up the menu. They brushed up the drinks. Anything that could entice beachgoers to stick around after sunset, they did.
“And it worked,” Haskas says. “It just caught on.”
“Now it’s an all-day diner.”
The Cafe That Became a Community
So let’s talk about the daytime. Plenty of The Shop’s devoted regulars – many of whom can count how long they’ve been coming in decades and years, not months – go just as often at night as they do during the day. But for a lot of people, their first introduction to The Shop is over a coffee – or one of its renowned sandwiches. The BLT might be the reigning best-seller but every sanga, from the poached chicken to the tarragon tuna, has its own legion of diehard fans.
If you can pry yourself away from a dish that doesn’t involve things between bread, there’s plenty more to fall for on the breakfast menu, too.
A Love Story Between People and Place
Lucy and Mike met when they were working together at The Shop. They fell in love there and took over the business. Over 20 years later, they’re raising their family here – and they’ve become a forever member of the Bondi family.
“It’s such a special place that I don’t want to go away,” Haskas says. “I don’t want it to stop – I think it’s too nice of a place for Bondi, to stop would just be rude.”
More Than a Name: A Bondi Original
“I always wanted to open a successful little café and wine bar with my lifelong partner and that’s pretty much what happened. It’s just a dream come true for me.”
It might have a humble name for a place that could be anywhere. But The Shop & Wine Bar could only have ever happened in Bondi.
Want to know more about how The Shop & Wine Bar found the right neighbourhood to call home? Watch the Bondi Beach episode of our video series Good Neighbours. ->
