Candy Berger and Gaia Lovell, owners of bagel and smoked salmon emporium Lox in a Box, have a lot going on. After opening their first shop at Bondi's Seven Ways in 2019, the past two months have included opening two more, in Coogee and Manly, and anticipating the imminent birth of their child.

"The other day I said to the little guy in [Gaia's] tummy, 'Just stay in there until Manly opens and then you can come whenever you want," Berger says.

Lox in a Box's newest shop, a bright, white-tiled space ringed with sea green stools, long concertina windows and the jaunty saluting salmon logo winking from their pizza-style catering boxes and takeaway bags, is tucked back from Manly's busiest thoroughfare, in an arcade leading from the Corso.

It's bigger than the Bondi and Coogee stores and, although its menu of perfectly chewy bagels filled with smoked salmon, chicken, halloumi, pastrami, brisket, egg, tuna, panko fish and plain cream cheese is there, it's the first Lox in a Box shop to offer in-house seating and a coffee machine. 

After their successful ventures in the eastern suburbs, Berger says they anticipated a slower burn in customers discovering the northern beaches outlet. But, smoked fish and bagel-devotees formed queues on the first day.

"It was totally not what we expected," she says. "We didn't know we were as known on the northern beaches. It was, 'Oh wow', so busy.

"There's not much happening from a Jewish perspective over on this side. I don't think anyone's offering chopped liver and egg mayo and those kind of delicious deli things that we do."

The range of filled bagels has expanded since 2019, although fans of the classic lox bagel, which features salmon, sliced tomato, capers, onions, and the herb schmear's combination of house-whipped cream cheese, dill, lemon and shallots, will find their favourite at the top of the board. It is ever luscious, tangy and rich, the salmon, sourced from New Zealand and cured and smoked in Rozelle, is beautifully tender.

Also excellent is the slow-cooked beef brisket, served with American cheese and kicky Russian dressing, and the spicy chicken, or halloumi, buffalo laced with labne ranch, hot sauce, carrot, pickles, iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese. 

Add-ons include pickles and chips, the latter a fantastically golden and crunchy American import which explode like potato-based fireworks in your mouth.

Vegan and vegetarian options include beetroot, jalapenos, pickles, schmear and salad vegetables, and anyone lusting for simplicity can wedge in a bagel thick with melty plain cream cheese.

Group catering is big at Lox in a Box but deli take-home packs from the fridge range from smoked salmon to egg mayo, tuna dip, kosher pickles, potato salad, cucumber salad, hummus, slaw and, for adventurous souls, chopped liver. 

There is little better than chowing through a lox bagel speckled with broken chips between slurps of a tangy house-made Arnold Palmer. Good strong flat whites are made using Single O coffee and there is cold brew, iced chai, kombucha and Simon Says juices for spring climes.

Manly is relatively sparse in terms of sandwich shops and Berger reckons the nearby beach is a top spot for ferrying bags of takeaway bagels, chips and pickles. They'll soon offer mini versions of their large catering boxes to eat on the sand.

She and Lovell, who also run catering company Fed Kitchen, have faced a great deal in recent times. In 2021, a long-held plan to open a Lox in a Box shop on Wilson Street in Newtown ended and they are scouting for another. In the same year, their newborn daughter passed away from a rare life-limiting genetic condition.

"My wife and I went through that experience and everything really changed and shifted," Berger says. "[Our daughter] came to this earth for a hundred days exactly and made a huge impact on all of our lives.

"We look at ourselves every day, we look at our lovely staff and customers, and we're very grateful. We are feeling all the love at the moment."

The low-down

Lox in a Box

Vibe Smoked salmon, pastrami, brisket and chicken in perfectly chewy bagels 

Go-to dish Classic lox with herb schmear or chicken with hot sauce