Playhouse Cafe

I recently visited Playhouse Cafe with a friend and her daughter. The Cafe is located in Lemoyne, at the corner of Erford Road and Walnut Street. Their slogan is "Kids Play, While You Cafe." They have 2 separate play areas for children: one for "under 2," (the Tot Spot) and the other for "two through 6" (the Playroom) The 2-6 room doesn't open till 10 a.m., and we arrived early. Since my 2-year-olds are on the small side, and there was nobody else there, they allowed us to play in the Tot Spot. The Tot Spot costs $1 per child, and is filled with small, soft, toys. There is a play kitchen, and a play tent/house, and a small squishy climbing area with a very small slide (like maybe a foot of drop). There are some ride-on toys, and some puzzles. We were told we needed to supervise our children in the Tot Spot, although another mother dropped her child off with us and went off to "cafe."

Altogether, we had (2) 2-year-olds, a one-year-old, and a 10-month-old, and all four children seemed to enjoy this area. It was well-worth a dollar a piece for the air conditioning, and the exposure to new toys.

I did purchase a smoothie from the cafe, mostly to feel like I wasn't using their space for free. I did feel that the smoothie was overpriced ($4+), and not the best I'd ever had, but again, a total of $7 for the morning didn't seem too bad.

There is also a "mother's room" for nursing mothers. We did not look in here at all to judge its comfort or usability. There are 2 family restrooms available, with changing tables.

We did not make use of the Playroom, since we were pretty well ensconced in the Tot Spot, but we did peek in. They have some larger toys there, including a pretend airplane frame, and a bigger climbing structure. The playroom costs $5 per child for 90 minutes. My opinion was that it didn't look worth $10 for my children, but it seemed like it got pretty busy after it opened at 10 a.m. I think a lot of parents like the option of having someone else supervise their children for an hour and a half. There was one mom in our corner of the cafe who works from home, and she brought her laptop to the cafe to get some work done while her son played. Compared to other indoor options, it may be a good alternative when the weather is bad, or you just need a break.