Combo launderette and bar to open in Ixelles

Brussels bar baron Frédéric Nicolay, behind more than a dozen current and past hotspots in Brussels such as Café Belga, Café Walvis and Flamingo, is opening a new friture in Ixelles. Where you can also do your laundry.

The combination chip shop, bar and launderette is located on Place Fernand Cocq, from which it takes its name: Frit-Cocq. It will also be home to a terrace and window so people can order from the street.

But you’ll have to pop inside, of course, to do your laundry. “There will be a passage from the café to the launderette,” Nicolay told Bruzz, indicating brand new washing machines. “They can also come in here first and then slip into the café for a coffee.”

There is a separate entry to the launderette as well in case customers want to skip the café part of their visit altogether.

Nicolay wants Frit-Cocq to be open 24-hours-a-day. “I love the feel of a place that’s always open,” he said. “It becomes a kind of reference point for everyone. If you come out of an event late, for instance, then you know you can always go there for a bite to eat. Maybe you’re meeting someone afterwards, maybe you don’t go to bed until 4.00. Hungry at 2 am? Then that’s where you go. I love this idea that you can always take people in, at any time.”

Frit-Cocq was meant to open in the spring, but the corona crisis got in the way. Now Nicolay hopes to open next month. While it will be the only existing launderette/bar in Brussels, it is not the first. Epaulé Jeté on nearby Place Flagey closed in 2016. Elsewhere in Belgium, the Wasbar chain has seven locations.

Photo: The new Frit-Cocq has a choice corner spot on Place Fernand Cocq
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