Who needs Bondi Beach when you have Blackpool? OK, so we might be enjoying a bit of summer sun in the UK at the moment, but for the other 50 weeks of the year, it’s nice to have a dream to cling to, and here’s a slice of the good life to help you through when things return to normal – that’s wet and cold. At Porch Bread & Wine on that famed stretch of Australian coast you can feel the sunlight streaming in, hear the breaking waves like softly struck cymbals accompanying your morning coffee, smell the salt air as you tip back a glass of cold crisp wine while the sun goes down.

Sam Smith and Sarah Hendriks have traded in an already popular but smaller Porch & Parlour premises around the corner, swapping the previous retail business for a food and drink incarnation one block over and still only a frisbee throw from the sand of North Bondi. You might be forgiven for thinking they had opened a couple of weeks early, but the relaxed, artfully unfinished décor is the key to the venue’s laid-back atmosphere. Helping it along is a patchwork wooden wall with a driftwood look, and a lovely counter tiled in the traditional Spanish style. Stop in here for breakfast and you might not get as far as the water…