Kipling’s Garage Bar

Kipling's Garage is a Turramurra wine bar sitting inside a converted 1920s mechanic's workshop. The fit-out leans right into it — Chesterfield couches, a working fireplace, exposed brick, reclaimed wood, automotive memorabilia on the walls. The name is pulled from a Rudyard Kipling line about red wine and books, and the list of both stays well stocked. Owner Helen Thompson opened it in 2012 and has kept the kitchen on inventive Australian tapas: mini beef burgers, chorizo-and-halloumi skewers, pan-fried king salmon with caviar sauce, a lychee pavlova that regulars order on autopilot.

Dogs are welcome on the covered outdoor patio — the former tyre-replacement bay — where high tables sit under market umbrellas. It's one of the Upper North Shore's most enduring small bars. Proper tapas north of the bridge is rarer than it should be.