Every day’s a vacay at Bondi’s California-cool cafe Glory Days

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Monitoring the waves of customers at Glory Days, the umbrella-ringed cafe at the northern corner of the restored Bondi Pavilion, is like watching the weather. Dawn brings dripping surfers, booted tradies and peppy dog-walkers lusting for coffee and spice-filled house-baked muffins wedged with orange slices.

Then, it’s city workers on way to the 380 bus ordering flat whites at the takeaway window before breakfasters with laptops, a towel or a yoga mat summon acai bowls of vegan granola, coconut, peanut butter and fresh blueberries and strawberries, or avocado toast piled with fancy greens, pickled ginger and apple.

Waves crash beyond and seagulls strut by. Tourists come, halted by the fabled sand and surf beyond, to drink mango and passionfruit sunrise smoothies and freshly squeezed orange juice under Glory Days’ caramel and milk-coloured sun umbrellas on the beachside front patio.

Then, when the lunch menu joins the all-day breakfast dishes at 11.30am, swimmers stroll up from wave-dumping in the surf to regain composure via a glowing Aperol Spritz, a plate of Sydney rock oysters with jalapeno mignonette and a cauliflower panini pico de Gallo with slaw, spiced roasted cauliflower and crisps.

All framed by unfettered access to, and a stonking view of, one of the world’s most famous beaches.

“We want this to be a warm, welcoming space where everyone can come and feel they’re on vacation in their own backyard.”

Aaron Crinis

Run by Aaron Crinis, who also oversees Glorietta and Glory Days Coffee in North Sydney, Glory Days in Bondi must please many.

“People have a great sense of ownership for the building and beachfront,” he says. “Early on, they were very interested, asking, ‘What are you going to be doing? You’re not going to be a raging bar on the beach, are you?’

“Right from when we first started, the concept for Glory Days was it’s meant to be a community venue for all. We’re a small piece of [the pavilion] here in the corner, and it’s very much a community space owned by the community.

“It’s a place to watch the thousands of different characters here on Bondi Beach, a daily routine for some, a place for visitors from interstate and overseas or a weekend treat for the family. It’s a home away from home for many, which is very much what I wanted it to be.”

Seating 80 in indoor and outdoor areas, the prime spot is out front on wooden stools or cane and canvas chairs at shaded tables ringed by headland and sea.

But indoors, with its sand-coloured padded banquette, central communal wooden table, coffee-hued tiling and majestic red travertine counter, is like a trip to a European seaside villa. Light spills through the Pav’s arched windows onto framed black-and-white photos of the coastline by Australian photographer Adrian Mesko.

Staff wear T-shirts saying “Every day vacay” and people in swimmers, their feet still smattered with sand, eat fat slabs of Cali classic pancakes dusted with icing sugar and served with banana, blueberries and a ramekin of maple syrup.

The most popular breakfast dish is the burrito, juicy, peppery and sporting very good scrambled eggs, but it’s worth letting your togs dry for the goodness bowl, a hefty garden of charred vegetables, avocado slices, crispy kale, roasted tomato, brown rice and a good wobbly poached egg.

There is a bevy of bread varieties for toast, bacon and egg rolls with gleaming round buns, bircher muesli with fruit compote and as many kinds of cold-pressed juices and smoothies as there are variations with Stitch Coffee beans.

The only beachside food Glory Days doesn’t do, apart from ice-cream, is hot chips. There is no deep fryer installed in the kitchen but passing seagulls still give you fried potato daggers beside the patio.

Glory Days also oversees the Pav’s upstairs area, its bar and terrace with extraordinary beach views catering for community, corporate and theatre events, and live music between Friday and Sunday.

But the magic is sitting, sand in your cossies, slurping a strong brew with an egg on toast watching the horizon above white-tufted blue waves.

“Bondi is ever-changing,” Crinis says. “We want this to be a warm, welcoming space, a place with Californian-Spanish-European vibes, where everyone can come and feel they’re on vacation in their own backyard.”