The Ladder
31 August 2026 THE LADDER 136 Bree Street, Cape Town While I sipped my large mug of Americano (R35) I stared at the other patrons at this Bree Street bastion of hipness and recalled the internet cafés of twenty years ago, rows of desktop PCs in a low budgie space where one would be lucky to get badly made instant coffee and a packet of crisps. Today, an internet café is a funky, stylish space like The Ladder where anyone who wants to be seen, and often heard, working in public can bring their MacBook. Usually, it's one person at a two-person table (if not a larger one) whiling away the hours doing whatever they’re doing for the price of a cup of coffee, maybe two, perhaps a cheap bite to eat. It’s as if The Ladder, and the like, isn’t actually intended for diners. Free wi-fi draws patrons but does it translate into profit? The last time I was here, my fellow patrons comprised a bevy of young women dressed as if they were at a fashion PR convention but today i...
