Opened November 2022 in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood, The Laundromat SF is, yes, housed in a former Laundromat. It’s also a block away from one of our historic theater gems worth supporting year-round: Balboa Theater. In fact, owners Jaimi Holker and Adam Bergeron are behind CinemaSF and run the Balboa Theater, so the connection holds synergy. The Laundromat makes an ideal pre- or post-film spot for a bite and drinks… if you can get in, but more on that in a moment.
Holker and Bergeron previously ran a Santa Cruz crepe restaurant, now partnering with Jenna O’Connell and Kevin Rodgers on The Laundromat, who have had farmers market presence since 2020 with their Holey Roller Bagels. By day, Laundromat is a bagel shop featuring Holey Roller’s “organic, boiled, baked, hand-rolled” bagels with an ideal lineup of schmears, especially Calabrian chile and basil and a beautifully balanced pickled onion and caper schmear. Bagels include the gamut from everything bagels and pumpernickel to black and white sesame. There is also coffee from the Mission’s special Grand Coffee.
At night the space warms up with old movies on two flat screens (Fritz Lang’s legendary 1927 “Metropolis” on one visit, a 1950s sci-fi movie another) and vinyl alternating between two record players (we wove from local alt to the great 1960s Walker Brothers my first visit, a David Crosby tribute from the Byrds to solo Crosby work the night after her died). Staff seem happy to be there and bring good cheer, particularly sitting at the bar.
The menu is straightforward: one veggie appetizer, a delightful fried brussels sprouts in soft, creamy goat cheese and a tart apple cider reduction that makes it pop, a couple salads (adore the tender, balanced Kelly’s Cove curly kale salad laden with sunflower sprouts, pepitas/pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and olive oil lemon tahini dressing) and four Detroit-style pizzas plus a special pizza of the day.
We are blessed with excellent Detroit-style pizza in this town (first and foremost, longtimer Capo’s, followed by Square Pie Guys, Cellarmaker House of Pizza, etc.). Though I wasn’t expecting Laundromat’s straightforward 8-by-10 pies to keep up, these are excellent pizzas in classic cheese, pepperoni and mushroom versions. Already the understandably runaway hit is the broccoli rabe in Calabrian chile red sauce, mozzarella and shaved fennel pizza. The underside of crusted parmesan adds crisp to the airy dough, while the red sauce exudes a welcome tang, almost like a vodka sauce. There is a vegan cheese pizza option and a recent special is winter veggie pizza topped with romanesco, cauliflower, olive pesto, mozzarella, feta, fried chickpeas and salsa verde. I can’t help but go back for the broccoli rabe pie.
Again, in keeping with the simple but beautifully executed spirit of the rest of their menu, two desserts include a mini-cannoli, unadorned but spot-on in terms of the crisp of the housemade shell, the subtly sour nuance of the cheese and the aromatics of orange. This little bite made this Sicilian, partially-Jersey raised girl happy.
What seals the deal and makes this a consummate place is the drink options. In addition to canned and bottled beers, there are three, rotating local craft beers on tap, including beers from Santa Cruz great Humble Sea or SF and Oakland joys from BareBottle and Ghost Town (thankfully, there are numerous bottles from the other Santa Cruz beer great, Sante Adairius, all nodding to Holker and Bergeron’s Santa Cruz days).
A natural wine list is filled with fun, funky, playful pours. Just what I want with pizza. Think a full, earthy yet zippy red 2021 Sifer Wines Boom Pet Nat from Catalonia, Spain, that will please Lambrusco lovers (there is also Lambrusco), or a full, earthy, white 2019 Les Equilibristes Picpoul from Périgord, France, that is biodynamic, organic and unfiltered. Vermouths are another win here — and happy pizza partner — from a couple simple but gratifying vermouth cocktails (like a spritzer of Carpano Antica bianco/dry and rosso/red vermouth, Granny Smith apples, lemon, lime) to organic Italian vermouths you can order on the rocks. The two vermouth drinks on the menu include a vermouth on the rocks. On the non-alcoholic (NA) side, they offer a couple fun drinks featuring one of my NA favorites, Ghia, as with their Lime & Salt Cocktail (Ghia Herbal Tonic, elderflower, lime, salt).
The main issue here is that there are no reservations. Good thing to keep it casual on one hand, but tricky past 5:30pm. Even within the first two months of opening, the place is already almost full up by 5:45pm on a weeknight with crowds waiting on weekends. But the staff take it on with a smile both nights I was in. Dining very early has been the only way I’ve avoided “no can do” waits.
The Laundromat is the ideal neighborhood restaurant, a win not just for the Outer Richmond, but the city. The overall package here is worth going out of your way for, even as straightforward and short as the menu is. There are numerous reasons I included it in my top 14 new openings of 2022, where I wouldn’t do so for most neighborhood pizza (and bagel!) joints. I wish there might reservations when it matters to know you have a seat if you cross town to dine, and that pizza and drinks offerings were available all day, even though the cafe and bagel options are. Either way, I’m glad it’s here.
As the records flip from one player to the other, quirky films flicker over the bar and a mix of all ages flood the space — from families with kids, to elderly couples and solo diners, to young hipsters — it seems clear this savvy team has a hit on their hands, the kind we all wish we had in our own neighborhood.
// 3725 Balboa Street, www.thelaundromatsf.com
