![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SOAPLaundromat_LaundryCoffeeLounge_TheChicksBand_EmilyStrayer_06_12.10.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
Emily Strayer, founder of country music band The Chicks, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, inside her new laundry and coffee concept SOAP Laundry Lounge in San Antonio, Texas. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\nEmily Strayer is an award-winning, multi-instrumental, founding member of country band The Chicks. <\/p>\n
If you catch her on the right day, though, she\u2019ll also be at the counter at her newest project, the elevated laundromat SOAP, smiling and helping customers.<\/p>\n
Strayer and her husband, Martin Strayer, opened SOAP in November. It started as a dream for the couple that has lived in San Antonio for 25 years now.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, it was commercial real estate that I was interested in. My husband and I have been wanting to invest in San Antonio,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was something we dreamed up that would be fun for us to do and invest in here in town.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Strayers bought a building near the corner of Oblate Drive and McCullough Avenue and spent the past two years turning it into an upscale laundromat. She worked with Urbano Design and Build and F\u00f6da, two Texas design companies, to give the building copious natural light, a coffee shop, wide metal folding tables and comfortable seating areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted it to be welcoming colors. I wanted a lot of natural light,\u201d Strayer said. \u201cWe really paid attention to the details.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily Strayer, founder of country music band The Chicks, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks, inside her new laundry and coffee concept SOAP Laundry Lounge in San Antonio, Texas. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
Now, customers can come in, do their laundry and enjoy a snack. Strayer has set up the laundromat prices to be middle of the market, with prices ranging from $5 to wash 40 lbs. of clothes to $9 for 80 lbs. of laundry.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s successful, she added, she hopes to expand in San Antonio and across Texas.<\/p>\n
The San Antonio Report recently sat down with Strayer to discuss the experience of owning a small business in San Antonio. <\/p>\n
The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like starting a new business in a new industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n I went from high school straight on the road, so I didn\u2019t go to college. I tell my friends, I feel like the last two years \u2014 planning this, preparing for this, dreaming it up, getting all the nuts and bolts done \u2014 has been my college.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a huge learning curve for me, but I\u2019ve really enjoyed learning about putting the business together. The business I\u2019m in is very insulated in that we have managers, business managers, road managers. We have people who absorb all of the day-to-day tasks for us so we can be creative.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s kind of by design, so that you\u2019re not bogged down. The creative is the fun part. Whether it\u2019s doing a T-shirt design or practicing a song or getting a stage show ready, it\u2019s always about the creativity.\u00a0<\/p>\n I wore both hats on this project. It was a creative project for me, because I love refurbishing, I love architecture, I love interior design, I love branding, I love all of those things.\u00a0It was a very creative pursuit, but to also mom-and-pop it and go get my loan and talk to distributors of washing machines and dryers and go to a laundry show in Houston with my ball cap on me and all the nuts and bolts of it was fun on certain days and not fun on certain days.<\/p>\n A laundry lounge like this one is a new idea in San Antonio. What led you to tackle that?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m practical by nature, and I wanted to invest in a business that was recession-proof and pandemic-proof, that was an essential need. The essential services are what are going to stick around.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of things that aren\u2019t going to stick around with new technology and artificial intelligence. People are always going to need to do their laundry.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why not elevate the task a little bit and get people somewhere to relax and have fun and do whatever they need to do, like catch up on work while they\u2019re doing the laundry or get a good cup of coffee?\u00a0<\/p>\n Are there parts of your other music and job experiences that you feel like contributed, overlapped or helped get you to this point?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll touch on the creativity. In any business, there\u2019s creativity to be had, and that was attractive to me. The overlap is human emotion.\u00a0<\/p>\n When people are dealing with music or expressing themselves musically, there\u2019s a lot of getting to the essence of the human condition. Although that might be a stretch, I feel like this is an all-inclusive place for every walk of life. Getting to know people\u2019s motivations and what drives them to want to need to be in a place like a laundromat, to me, it\u2019s just about psychology.<\/p>\n I\u2019m curious if you have any thoughts about what kind of businesses you see succeeding in San Antonio, what some of that growth and future looks like.<\/strong><\/p>\n My hope is that small business prevails in San Antonio, and the neighborhood corner shops continue to thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n I love that kind of feel of San Antonio-branded things and having it feel like a community. I don\u2019t like to drive out by 10 and see the strip malls. I don\u2019t like that part of the [city\u2019s] expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n I like neighborhoods to feel like neighborhoods and have sidewalks. I\u2019m hoping that\u2019s the way San Antonio will continue to be. <\/p>\n My sister lives in Austin, and she always makes fun of me? But I feel like we have a lot to offer. I love the standard of living here. I love raising my kids here, and I think the boutique, corner, mom-and-pop store is the way I would like to see San Antonio grow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily Strayer is an award-winning, multi-instrumental, founding member of country band The Chicks. If you catch her on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":487056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,219933,219934,177315,219935,196148,11628,219936,32921,7202,7203,9207,219937,358,219938,7453,3187,7593,67,586,132,5230,219939,68,2969,7594],"class_list":{"0":"post-487055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-emily-strayer","10":"tag-laundromat","11":"tag-laundry","12":"tag-mccullough-avenue","13":"tag-new-business-san-antonio","14":"tag-north-side","15":"tag-oblate-drive","16":"tag-qa","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-sanantonio","19":"tag-small-business","20":"tag-soap","21":"tag-texas","22":"tag-the-chicks","23":"tag-top-story","24":"tag-tx","25":"tag-typefeature","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-urbano-design-and-build","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa","33":"tag-wc-1000-1500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115825485248640508","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SOAPLaundromat_LaundryCoffeeLounge_TheChicksBand_EmilyStrayer_17_12.10.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
Chandeliers resembling clusters of foamy bubbles add to the trendy and unique atmosphere of Emily Strayer\u2019s SOAP Laundry Lounge. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SOAPLaundromat_LaundryCoffeeLounge_TheChicksBand_EmilyStrayer_10_12.10.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
Laundromat customers have the option of picking up a fresh pastry or coffee drink between loads at SOAP Laundry Lounge at 900 Oblate Drive in San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SOAPLaundromat_LaundryCoffeeLounge_TheChicksBand_EmilyStrayer_13_12.10.2025_AmberEsparza.jpg\")
UTSA students Tre Marcus Kleczkowski and Bella Gomez knock out a couple of loads of laundry during their school week at SOAP on Dec. 10, 2025. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n