Popular bagel shop slapped with $23,000 bill over simple windows

If you’ve ever bitten into a warm, chewy bagel piled high with house-cured salmon, you’ll know it’s more than just a snack—it’s an experience.

At Coogee’s Lox in a Box, that experience became part of the neighbourhood’s heartbeat.

But when Randwick Council slapped the beloved eatery with a $23,000 penalty over its windows, locals were left stunned.

What started as a quirky pun turned into one of Sydney’s most recognisable food businesses.

Owner Candy Berger had originally planned a sit-down Jewish deli, but her wife Gaia Lovell’s suggestion of calling their takeaway boxes ‘Lox in a Box’ sparked an entirely new idea.

Instead of a deli, they launched a bagel-and-schmear delivery service, filling a gap in Sydney’s food scene that Berger, who grew up in California, knew was sorely missing.

By 2019, she had secured a small stained-glass shopfront in Bondi’s Seven Ways, and the gamble paid off.

Within just over two years, Lox in a Box grew from a single hole-in-the-wall shop into a small empire, opening outlets in Bondi, Coogee, Manly, and even operating a forest green trailer in Marrickville.

Locals flocked to the stores for New York-style bagels, lox, and deli staples, turning the brand into a community favourite.

When windows caused a costly clash

The trouble began in Coogee when someone reported the store’s canteen-style windows to Randwick Council.

These windows, which lifted and locked into place for daily trade, were declared non-compliant and labelled both a safety hazard and an intrusion on public space.

Council ordered the business to replace them with the original bifold design or face closure, a decision that devastated both staff and customers who had come to love the convenience.

For the owners, the financial sting was brutal.

Replacing the windows cost $8,000, securing certification and approvals added $15,000, and the business lost a full day’s trade—altogether a $23,000 setback.

Having already invested $400,000 in renovations to transform a drab space into a welcoming eatery, the penalty felt like a punishment for success.

The bigger compliance burden

The wider picture showed they were not alone.

Business NSW found that 72 per cent of cafés, bars, and shops said regulations were too demanding, a sharp rise from 53 per cent just two years earlier.

The time cost was equally crushing, with small operators losing 20 hours a month to compliance paperwork and larger businesses spending up to 40 hours a week.

The Productivity Commission revealed that opening a business could require up to $38,360 in applications and forms, from environmental plans to owner consent and consultation fees.

These weren’t just figures on a page—they were barriers keeping passionate entrepreneurs from serving their communities.

For Lox in a Box, the setback came even as the team pushed forward with expansion, scouting sites in Newtown and preparing to partner with independent grocers to reach more shelves.

The stores weren’t just about bagels—they were about music, energy, and community, with Berger describing them as places where people could sing, dance, and connect over food.

Council defends its stance

Randwick Council defended its position, stating it had been ‘working constructively’ with the business since January 2025 and that compliant windows were approved in June.

But to other small business owners, the message was clear: even success offered no shield from red tape.

If the $23,000 penalty against Lox in a Box left you shaking your head, it’s far from the only case where council decisions have hit communities hard.

In another instance, a simple administrative mistake ended up costing locals millions—highlighting just how damaging these errors and oversights can be.

It’s a reminder that sometimes the biggest financial blows don’t come from businesses themselves, but from the systems meant to oversee them.

Read more: Are you being overcharged? This council error cost residents over $10 million!

When thriving local businesses are punished for details like window design, it raises the question—are we protecting communities, or burying them under bureaucracy?