Laundromat

Overview

Takapuna’s Barry’s Point Road presents an alchemy of industrial factories, motorbike shops and the like, but it’s also home to the H.Q. of streetwear giant Federation. A few years ago, the label branched out into the café business, opening Laundromat, a hip café-slash-art gallery.

Inside, the Federation influence is front and centre. It’s a Warhol-esque space filled with couches spray-painted with neon graffiti, exposed brick walls, arrays of taxidermy heads and a central communal table big enough to house a Viking knees-up.

Laundromat offers a vast array of cabinet fare; Panini’s, salads and an unfairly large selection of sweets. You’ll get overwhelmed by choice, so hit up the effervescent front-of-house Beanie for a recommendation. Having ducked in from a virtual harbourside hurricane outside, we took refuge in the chilli beef and cheese pie and a salami scramble roll. Our meals were washed down with flat whites – the beans were courtesy of Coffee Supreme and our coffees were delivered with tasting notes. Naturally, we scrutinized the appropriate Venn diagrams and nodded approvingly at the hints of toffee.

Laundromat’s a great space (all the pop-kitsch artwork on the wall’s for sale too), the prices are a steal (both our dishes were $8 and the sweets are around $5), and Fed’s within walking distance for those looking at doing a little shopping too. The cafe makes it worth hanging a left into Takapuna’s industrial fringe.