Sydney’s Best Bookstore: Gertrude and Alice

If you asked me to name Sydney's best bookstore, I wouldn't hesitate: Gertrude & Alice, a wonderfully rambling second-hand-and-new bookshop and café at 46 Hall Street, just a couple of minutes' walk back from the sand at Bondi Beach. It's the sort of place where you come in for one book, order a coffee, and lose a whole afternoon between the shelves - and honestly, that's the point.

Where

46 Hall Street, Bondi Beach

What

Second-hand & new bookshop + café

Opened

2001

Great for

Browsing, coffee, book lovers

Hours & menu

Check the official site (they change seasonally)

A Bondi institution with a Parisian soul

Gertrude & Alice opened its doors in 2001, founded by friends Jane Turner and Katerina Cosgrove, who between them had amassed a small mountain of books and were waiting for the right premises to appear. When an old surf shop on Hall Street came up for lease, the name chose itself. The store is named after Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, whose apartment on the Rue de Fleurus in 1920s Paris became a legendary salon for writers and artists. That's the spirit the shop still runs on - books as a reason for people to gather, argue, read aloud and linger.

Step inside and the first thing you notice is that there's no slick retail polish here. Books are stacked floor to ceiling, spill across tables and cluster in happy little towers on the floor. New releases sit alongside battered second-hand paperbacks and the occasional collectable, so half the fun is the treasure hunt - you never quite know what you'll turn up in the fiction section or tucked away in philosophy, poetry or the kids' corner.

The café: coffee among the shelves

What sets Gertrude & Alice apart from every other bookshop I know is that the café isn't bolted on as an afterthought - it's woven right through the store. You order a coffee and settle in at a communal table surrounded by books, and nobody's rushing you along. It's genuinely one of my favourite spots in Bondi to sit with a flat white and whatever I've just pulled off the shelf - and if you're chasing good coffee elsewhere too, our guide to Bondi's best cafés and coffee rounds up the rest of the neighbourhood.

They do all-day breakfast, lunch and the usual espresso-based coffee, plus cakes and sweet things. The menu shifts with the seasons, so rather than quote you dishes and prices that might be out of date by the time you read this, I'll point you straight at their café menu online for the current line-up.

More than a shop - a community

The reason Gertrude & Alice has become such a fixture of the eastern suburbs is that it's never just been about selling books. It runs a busy calendar of book clubs, author talks, book launches and readings, and over the years it's grown into a genuine community hub - the kind of independent bookshop that a neighbourhood rallies around. In an age of online everything, there's something quietly radical about a room full of strangers who'd rather talk about a novel in person.

If you're building a Bondi day around it, I'd pair a morning swim with a wander up Hall Street, an hour lost in the shelves, and lunch or coffee at the café before heading back to the beach. It's the perfect antidote to a scorching afternoon - cool, shady, and full of stories.

So that's my pick for Sydney's best bookstore - not the biggest, not the flashiest, but the one with the most heart. Come for a book, stay for the coffee, and don't be surprised if Gertrude & Alice becomes the reason you keep coming back to Bondi that has nothing to do with the surf.