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No one wanted to live in Bondi. That’s strange to think about now that it’s one of the most desirable suburbs in Sydney, with a beach as iconic as the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House. But not too long ago it used to be rough. Home only to blue-collar workers and migrants, many of them Jewish and Eastern European, seeking out affordable housing at the end of the tram line.
How things have changed. The 80s and 90s brought a wave of bohemian energy to the neighbourhood. Artists and creatives breathed vibrancy into the area. Gentrification soon followed. By the mid to late 2000s Bondi was the Bondi we know now: beautiful, expensive and pumped full of visitors.
Bondi is often unfairly accused of not having much of a personality. An attractive tourist-trap without much going on for it beyond its looks. But don’t be fooled. People in the neighbourhood, whether they’re lifelong locals or have just arrived, know better. This beachside burb has one of Sydney’s most welcoming and tight-knit communities – with the people and businesses that go along with it.
There’s much more to Bondi than meets the eye.
The Shop & Wine Bar: a beloved slice of old Bondi that’s staying fresh
Lucy Haskas was part of the generation of creatives that came to the neighbourhood around the turn of the century – and never left.
She soon found a job at a little café a stone’s throw away from the beach: The Shop & Wine Bar.
“I got a job here as a waitress 21 years ago,” she says. “And I fell in love with it – this was my dream job.”
That’s not all she’d fall in love with. One regular customer, Mike, soon caught her eye.
“Mikey would walk past every afternoon, for maybe a year, and buy a chocolate chip cookie.”
After falling into The Shop’s orbit, its pull – and maybe Lucy’s – eventually led him to take a job there.
And we just fell in love.”
Lucy Haskas → co-owner, The Shop & Wine Bar
Eventually the pair, both working at The Shop by then, got the opportunity to take it over for themselves.
“In my head, I always had this fixation of owning a successful little café and wine bar in Bondi with my life partner – and this just appealed to both of us at the same time,” Haskas says.
“So let’s just do it. Let’s fly together and have this little empire and have babies.”
The babies would come – but first the pair had to turn their adopted child, The Shop, into what it is today.
Over 20 years since Haskas started at The Shop and fell in love, and just under 20 years since she took it over with her husband, it’s now the neighbourhood’s pride and joy: an iconic venue in an iconic place. And it has the devoted regulars to prove it.
“We’ve had customers that come here from 2004 to now – we’ve had them come in single, meet, get married, and now their kids are grown up and going to school,” Haskas says. Some people don’t ever change their meals for 15 years.”
The community is unbelievable; we’ve formed so many relationships. It’s a beautiful family.”
Lucy Haskas → co-owner, The Shop & Wine Bar
The neighbourhood’s always changing, and Lucy and Mike know that better than most. The Shop succeeds because it never stays exactly the same – it always reflects the community around it.
“It’s such a special place – we don’t want it to stop, it’s too nice of a place for Bondi,” Haskas says. “And we just grow and evolve because Bondi is always evolving.”
Lox In A Box: the star of new Bondi sticking to tradition
In 2019, the neighbourhood’s hospitality scene evolved in a big way, when Candy Berger and her wife Gaia Lovell opened their bagel shop: Lox In A Box.
Berger grew up in the UK and the US before moving to Sydney when she was 18. The first place she landed was the beachside neighbourhood.
“It was my first home when I got here,” she says. “My family’s all in the area, my family friends, everybody sort of lives around here – it was a happy accident that we opened exactly in the spot that we did, but it made sense.”
Lox in a Box specialises in Polish style bagels, rather than the more commonly found New York-style ones. For Berger, the style spoke to her Eastern European tradition and heritage – as well as what the area – Sydney’s Jewish heartland – needed most.
“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, and Bondi specifically.”
“So there’s always been a community of people that were willing and opening and wanting this product.”
She was right. Lox in a Box was an instant success, and its takeaway-friendly model was well-suited to the Covid lockdowns that were waiting just around the corner. The pandemic didn’t just change hospitality in the area, though.
“After Covid finished, I’ve seen a lot of new faces,” Berger says. “There’s been a lot of change – great change – heaps of new places have opened around us.”
Those new people – and places – have been welcomed into the neighbourhood with gusto, adding to a community and area that Berger feels has always been misunderstood.
Bondi is much more than was people see on socials, or what people hear about Bondi from all over the world,” she says. “They mostly just hear about that side of Bondi – but it definitely has a different side.”
Candy Berger → co-owner, Lox In A Box
For Berger, it’s a neighbourhood that’s made her dreams come true – Lox in a Box has four locations, with more surely on the way.
“It’s perfect honestly,” she says. “I wouldn’t pick anywhere else other than right here.”
And her advice for anyone who believes Bondi’s shallow reputation is to come to the neighbourhood, and experience the vibes for yourself.
“You really need to come to Bondi, to spend time here, to really get to know this place,” she says. “It’s exceptional, it’s really special.”
Want to hear more about how The Shop & Wine Bar and Lox in a Box have come to define Bondi? Watch the Bondi episode of our Good Neighbours series ->
