Bondi Beach

A second-hand and new bookshop and cafe on Hall Street, a block from Bondi Beach, opened in 2001 by Jane Turner and the writer Katerina Cosgrove and now run by Turner with her children Kate and Jordan. It takes its name and its salon idea from Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas: some 18,000 books layered over the walls, floors and tables, a kitchen doing breakfast and lunch, a chai that draws regulars from across Sydney, and an after-hours literary salon hosting book clubs and author nights.

Daniel Ferster and Daniel Berman built this O'Brien Street cellar around a single rule: every bottle on the shelf has to be Australian. No imports, no filler — just small-batch and biodynamic winemakers alongside local spirits, chosen by staff who can talk through a producer's vineyard as readily as its vintage. Midweek tastings bring winemakers in to pour alongside cheese, turning a retail visit into something closer to a cellar door. The pair have since opened a second outpost in Surry Hills, but Bondi remains the original, a short walk from the beach in a suburb better known for swimwear than serious wine. It's open daily, with longer hours Friday and Saturday for the after-beach crowd. For a traveller wanting to bring home something more considered than a supermarket shiraz, it's a reliable first stop before the sand.