Bookoccino, a bookshop, cafe and bar in Avalon Beach

Avalon's bookshop has been selling books since 1992. Under a former staff member and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, it has become a stage for writers too.

Bookoccino has been part of Avalon since 1992, on Old Barrenjoey Road a short walk from the surf. The name gives away its claim to fame: it is rumoured to be the first bookshop in Australia to serve coffee. RUSSH calls it a cult-classic favourite among locals and one of the first places in Sydney to bring the bookstore and the café together.

When the shop went up for sale after 25 years, it was bought by two people who had first met there. Sally Tabner had been working for the original owners. Ray Bonner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former foreign correspondent for The New York Times, had walked in one day looking for a book for his son. By then friends, the two bought the business together.

They made it a cultural space as much as a shop. In-conversation events have brought Geraldine Brooks, Richard Flanagan, Lionel Shriver, Samantha Power and Malcolm Turnbull to Avalon. The shop supported the Walkley Book Awards in 2025 and partnered with this year's Sydney Writers' Festival. Sunday mornings bring live music that often plays to standing room only, Tuesday mornings bring StoryTime for young readers, and a book club meets every month.

The shelves hold more than 10,000 titles, from literary fiction and classics to politics, history, cookbooks, art and architecture, with a children's collection of its own. If a book isn't in stock, the staff will try to find it. The coffee is a collaboration with local roaster Little Italy, and there is wine too.

Bookoccino calls itself a computer-free bookstore and café, “a small rebellion in favour of thinking, conversation and the simple pleasure of reading”. It is as good a reason as any to sit down with a coffee and stay a while.