Climbing The Ladder

 5 August 2022

 

The Ladder

136 Bree Street, Cape Town

 

If I were a city dwelling post-Millennial (Millennial at a stretch), who can work from anywhere with good wi-fi and a MacBook and love being surrounded in a public space by my kindred spirits, The Ladder would be where I’d spend a lot of time and a bit of money.  It’s lovely and there’s a real sense of lively urban energy.

 

Today was my third visit. The first time around, I met the elder goddaughter here for coffee (she drank some health juice thing), as they had opened so recently then that the interior was half finished and they served little or no food. On the second occasion, there was no available table because the joint was jumping with a crowd of smartly dressed young women who might’ve been having a kaffee klatsch conference.

 

Third time lucky. The Ladder was still well populated but I could find an open communal table on the mezzanine level. Perhaps due to my age, the waiter pointed out to me, quite redundantly I thought, that it was a communal table and that other patrons might want to join me at the table. I was okay with that. I’d ignore them and they would no doubt  ignore me.

 

The Ladder is at home in a large, splendid, old building on the corner of Bree and Dorp Streets, with a double volume space at the front and the mezzanine floor at the rear, with huge windows on the Dorp Street side and  glass frontage that give wonderful natural light even when the power went out. The basic colour scheme is brilliant white, even on the exposed old ceiling beams, with green accents from forest of hanging plants. Most of the small tables are downstairs, with one communal table, and upstairs there are three communal tables, one small table and working space at a two counters overlooking downstairs,  for those who come to work rather than simply socialising.  For good weather days there is bench seating on the pavement. 

 

It's a spacious venue and when it’s full, like this morning,  it’s buzzing.

 

The demographic is very much hip, young Cape Town, very much different to the clientele of The Bailey.

 

The breakfast menu is, as seems customary these days, brief, with eggs Benedict,  scrambled eggs  on  toast, a fry up, and a couple of health options. There are a limited number of add-ons, one of which is “tempeh bacon.”  Needless to say, tempeh bacon is not bacon.

 

A double shot of espresso, served in a cute porcelain goblet-ette, is R22

and the substantial Americano is R27. The coffee is good and though loadshedding kicked in before I had my second coffee, I could still have it. 

 

My choice, for a change, was the eggs Benedict (R70) on sourdough toast.  I added bacon (R15.)

 

It’s not a substantial plate of food  but, at the price, it does the job with perfectly poached eggs, nicely crisp bacon and a light touch of proper Hollandaise. There was even a tiny salad. A thoroughly enjoyable breakfast.

 

I had a fresh, opulent cronut (R30) with my Americano. It was so good, I took one home for the wife.

 

The breakfast bill came to R160,00 before tip. 

 

I suppose it’s on the cusp of weird old dude ogling, but I did have a splendid time observing the other patrons, in particular two hipster dudes who engaged in an animated conversation about their respective ambitions and business plans, exchanging names 10 minutes into the chat and probably planning a collaboration for mutual benefit and great success. I don’t do it myself, but I love to observe networking in action. 

 

To my surprise, a couple of moms with toddlers came upstairs at about 11h00.  This place, lovely as it is, hardly seems like a child friendly environment.

 

If you want a quiet breakfast in solitude, this is not for you. If you like being surrounded by the young and lovely, and have a MacBook, this place IS for you. Beautiful space, good food and coffee and that contemporary hip, urban oomph.