Hidden Treasure in Evanston: The Laundry Café
Why didn't someone think of this sooner?
A laundry café -- an actual café inside a bright, modern, impeccably clean building -- where you can wash your clothes and take a powder. It makes a necessary ritual so much better...my favorite place in Evanston.
First, you're going to thank me for helping you find it -- it's actually simple.
The Laundry Café is inside The AUX, at 2223 Washington Street. But you don't enter from Washington -- that's where people get off track.
Here's the easy route to the entrance via Main Street:
Coming from Dodge turn left onto Pitner Alley.
Coming from McCormick turn right onto Pitner Alley.
It's just a little east of the Food For Less gas station.
When you turn onto Pitner Alley, go down half a block and you'll see The AUX, a 1,600-sf, sustainably finished building filled with heart, intention, and growing small businesses.
You're in the parking lot.
The AUX is a small-business hub supporting Black-owned entrepreneurs. A wellness center, a salon, a doula agency--they're all filling in around it, creating a community-rooted ecosystem. Everyone is welcome.
In the front of the space is a charming café with coffee, tea, pastries, and smoothies. When I arrive, walk by it's typically full of friends laughing uproariously and swapping stories.
The laundry section itself is exactly what you hope for and rarely get: Ultra-modern machines in multiple sizes. I even do big comforters and the like:
30-minute wash cycles
30-minute dry cycles
A reusable card you load with time (no coins, no drama)
Laundry tables for folding.
My tip: I put my cottons on the lowest drying setting and 30 minutes later they're dry and not shrunken. A domestic miracle.
If the back room isn't rented for an event or meeting, I sometimes work there. It is sun-filled, quiet, and peaceful.
And as if the excellent equipment and tasty cake and cookies weren't enough coolness, the people are the true heart of this place.
Owned by cousins and sisters, the energy here is deeply community-centered -- warm, grounded, human. The women responsible for this wonderful place could not be kinder, more helpful, nor more fun.
When I'm pressed for time, I use the Wash-Dry-Fold service. It's a gift to me and not terribly expensive.
I want to support this business because it supports me -- with sparkling clean clothes, yes, but also with community, warmth, human kindness and a great business started by smart women
I'm a little ambivalent about sharing it because it's become one of my sanctuaries. But Laundry Cafe deserves every bit of praise.
Of the owners, I know Tasha Wilson the best. She's a powerful woman running a great business and on the Evanston police force.
A shout out to Jasmine, too. She's Tasha's younger sister, and one of the most helpful, generous humans on the planet. She rocks.
The Laundry Cafe is highly, wholeheartedly recommended. read more