Bubble Brew: Laundry and Café in one
DOING the laundry is one of the household chores we necessarily do every week, although some do it more often.
Usually done during the weekends, laundry is often done in the comfort of your home, be it through using the washing machine or doing it by hands.
However, those who are living in boarding houses, hotels, apartments, condominiums, or those who are just too busy to do their household chores tend to have their laundry done at laundry shops. Just bringing in their clothes and loading them into the machine and in about an hour all clothes are as good as new.
The thing about laundry shops, people tend to get bored waiting for their clothes to finish washing up and being dried in the dryer. So, they look for things to do while waiting, like playing with their phones, watching television (if one is available in the laundry shop) or talking to their companions if they brought one.
Luckily, there’s this shop located at the corner 9th-16th Street, Nazareth, Cagayan de Oro City that offers the usual laundry services however, it also offers comfort and convenience to its customers as it also serves as a cafe.
Bubble Brew Laundromat is a self-service laundromat cafe, established on February 2018, that serves as a laundry shop and at the same time offers drinks and snacks for the customers who have to wait for their clothes to finish washing and drying.
“Unlike sa uban, mas maganahan ka’g stay or magtambay or dili kaayo masayang imong time while ga wait ka, especially sa mga students, ga study sila or gabuhat sa ilang thesis, makatrabaho sila kay naay free WiFi and coffee,” Katrina Camille (KC) Salazar, one of the owners of Bubble Brew, said.
Bubble Brew has five washing machines and five dryers the customers can use. All of the machines are card operated; you just need to pay P60 per load (8 kilograms) for washing and another P60 for drying.
The washing machines use liquid detergent and if you don’t have one in your person, you can buy your needed detergent in Bubble Brew.
It may be self-service however, the staff in Bubble Brew helps its customers in terms of operating the machines and even folding your clothes.
And while you wait for your laundry to finish, you can relax and have a taste of the snacks and beverages they offer, such as cookies, coffee, frappe, flavored latte, smoothies, tea, and others.
There are also other means to pass your time in Bubble Brew as it also has a Smart TV available where you can watch shows from Netflix or videos in Youtube. The shop also has free WiFi which will keep you entertained until your laundry is finished.
“Ang among edge gyud is that you’re at home, like you can do the laundry, which is household na imo nga chore, and yet ma-enjoy gyapon ka. And dili ka ma bored and mainitan,” Salazar said.
According to her, the Bubble Brew Laundromat came from their desire to put up a cafe. However, all of them have no experience when it comes to making coffee as no one in their group is a trained barista.
“Gusto lang sad mi nga even though nga kana bitaw basic need sa tao nga among ma-cater nga bisan pag maganahan ka’g coffee or not, maglaba man gyud ka. Basic kaayo sya nga thing,” Salazar said.
KC is an officer in a bank here in Cagayan de Oro City and, apart from being one of the owners of Bubble Brew, she is also the vocalist of the Indie Dream-Pop band KRNA (pronounced kire-ina).
Despite her busy schedule, she still find the time to tend to their laundrycafe shop. Although all of it overwhelms her, KC said she just needs to organize everything and manage her time.
At present, the laundry part of the shop tends to get more sales than the cafe, according to KC. As such, she said they plan to promote their cafe more, adding that their cafe is at part to the standards of the normal cafe in the city.
“We know nga naa mi capability ana, except that karon nga year nag focus mi more on sa laundry,” KC said.
She said they will be bringing in more food items in their menu to pair up with their beverages.
Apart from that, they are also looking into offering a delivery service for their laundry as some of their customers are from those living in the uptown and Gusa areas.
Bubble Brew Laundromat, according to KC, is perhaps the only laundrycafe hybrid shop here in the city. Not only does it give you the convenience in doing one of the tiring household chores, but the shop also gives you comfort and relaxation.