Cool Spaces: I Love The Dough

WORDS Michaela Stehr IMAGES Jan Ras

This eye-catching pizza spot on Cape Town’s Bree Street features blush-worthy decor and a name that pays homage to a hip-hop classic.

You definitely won’t miss the candy-floss pink exterior and bright neon signage of pizza eatery and cocktail bar I Love The Dough, which opened in October 2019. It’s the brainchild of Niki Reschke and partner Marco Picone of Arcade café on the same street, and the team wanted to bring a cheeky element to their decor, complemented with food to match.

“First off, my partner and I are by no means professionally trained designers,” says Niki. “Both of us are lovers of hip-hop and sitting around a table just laughing and being creative, Marco started singing Biggie Smalls’ I Love The Dough, looked at me and said, ’That could be a cool name for our place’ – and the rest is history.”

Featuring T-Rex skeleton wallpaper, sleek Bianco marble countertops and tables, turquoise barstools and leather quilted benches, the space has more than a few of the sort of design flourishes that make a restaurant interior pop.

Add neon signage and quotes scrawled graffiti-style on the walls – and even ceiling – and the interior ensures that your visual appetite is sated before you’ve even ordered your pizza.

I Love The Dough was never intended to look like a typical pizza joint, Niki says. “Our idea… was to create a space that shows off our attitude to life. It relaxes our customers’ eyes and lets them feel like they’re not in the traditional space with the same basic design, colour scheme and textures.

“We wanted the location to be a small, light space that combines a non-traditional design concept with our classic-style pizza, offsetting the past with a current – even futuristic – look and feel.” And they’ve done a pizza perfect job of it.

Follow @ilovethedoughct on Instagram.