The Nielsen, on Shark Beach

Nielsen Park is a piece of harbour foreshore in Vaucluse, lawn and shade running down to a beach that looks out over the water. The Nielsen is the building at the bottom of it, on the sand at Shark Beach. For many people it is the reason they know the park at all: somewhere to get a coffee before a swim, or lunch after one, without leaving the beach.

The operation is simple and built for a beach. Coffee and a grab-and-go case from 7am, the kitchen from 8am, breakfast running into lunch and finishing mid-afternoon. There is no need to dress: people order in swimmers, eat at an outside table or take it back to a towel. Takeaway is part of the point, so a swim does not have to wait on a table. Champagne and hot chips are both on, and neither is out of place.

The same site carries three event spaces, all within sight of the same water. The Pavilion is the grand one, high ceilings and classic detailing, with lawn in front and the harbour beyond it — weddings, birthdays, the days people plan a year out. The Kiosk is looser and lighter, a room for a party standing up. The Beach Club is closest to the sand, with a private bar and a deck, and moves from lunch to drinks without a change of scene. Between them the venue takes 10 guests or 200.

It suits a certain kind of day. Swimmers first thing, families through the middle of it, and whoever is still on the sand when the light starts to go. Weather runs the place — a grey week is a quiet one, a hot Saturday is the opposite — and the published hours move with it, and with trade. Ring ahead if you are travelling any distance.