13 Restaurant Bathrooms That Might Just Be Cooler than the Food
Some go for the food, some go for the bar, others go for the scene. But the restroom?
When considering everything that constitutes an epic dining experience, restrooms don't often make the list. But when you need to visit the loo in the middle of your meal, it's suddenly the most important part of the restaurant.
“In this age of the three essential elements of dining—food, service, and ambience—restaurants have such an opportunity to transform people into the experience with design. The restroom offers an extension of that visual experience on a more personal, private level,” says Jason French, chef and owner of Portland’s Ned Ludd, a restaurant that looks like a vintage rustic kitchen.
More and more savvy restaurateurs want to make every aspect of their place buzz-worthy, and creating memorable restrooms has become the next big thing. Jono Fried, chief creative officer of Boca Cincinnati (which has six differently themed restrooms) maintains that providing a spectacular washroom adds “one more fun revel of discovery in an already exciting restaurant. It’s a place where you can get the biggest impact because there’s just such little expectation.”
We’ve combed the country to find extraordinary restroom experiences that are as enticing as the menu, thanks to cutting-edge design, hide-and-seek adventures, spellbinding optical illusions, and mind-blowing views.
Proof on Main1/13Latrine as Gallery
In Louisville’s art-laden 21C Museum Hotel, Proof on Main restaurant infuses American Nouvelle fare with Kentucky ingredients. The hotel aim, integrating art into everyday life, extends even into the restrooms, where a one-way mirror over a waterfall urinal provides secret views of artwork in a side gallery outside. Feel like you’re being watched back? The vanity mirror is also an exhibit. Artist Sean Biddle embedded LED monitors inside the glass projecting a rotating array of (literally) darting eyes—entitled The Absence of Voyeurism #6 and #7, the wandering peepers belong to members of a blind darts group.
Courtesy Boca Cincinnati2/13A Night at the Powder Room
Boca Cincinnati’s creators believe the restaurant experience should be a journey that doesn’t reveal everything at the outset. Its swanky bar is separated from the dining room, which was inspired by Café Momus in La Boheme and serves modern French/Italian fare. As for the restrooms, there are six, bearing wildly different themes behind eye-popping red doors: cooking, childhood, opera, men's salon, French countryside, and Spirograph. The bathrooms have become such a draw that diners like to linger, checking out each one. The most popular among diners is the opera theme, which features custom-made wallpaper depicting a repeating vintage photo of opera patrons.
Alex Lau3/13Sushi in Wonderland
At New York City’s Japanese-fusion restaurant Morimoto, artist Takeshi Miyakawa created a modern Zen environment even in the restroom. More than just a place to wash your hands, the bathroom is like a hologram of mirrors, where you could almost get lost in seemingly infinite reflections of cherry blossoms. Guests can ponder it all further inside the stalls, where the endless floral spectrum absorbs them deeper.
Courtesy Lincoln Barbour4/13Lav-Man and Ms. Lav-Man
Portland’s Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade is a neon-lit, bleep-filled nightspot where grown-ups play arcade games, sample local brews, and snack on light homemade fare like soups, chili, hummus, and five kinds of nachos. The pixelated action continues in the lavatories, labeled "Pac-Man" and "Ms. Pac-Man" instead of "his" and "hers." Designer Jessica Helgerson integrated images of the iconic videogame couple into the tiles, turned the mirrors into pixelated mazes topped by Tron-inspired lighting, and constructed the faucets so that they not only bring forth a gush of water, but a continuous array of trance-inducing colored lights.
Courtesy Vegas.com5/13A Loo with a View
When Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is rebranded Delano later this year, celebrity chef Alain Ducasse will also transform his in-house Michelin-starred Mix restaurant into Rivea, a contemporary French-Italian eatery, while keeping the focus on the breathtaking 64-story views. Also remaining intact are the best seats in the house: the ladies lounge's backward-facing toilet bowls, which face floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Las Vegas Strip. Men won’t be disappointed either: Glass walls with outside views completely surround the urinals to make guys feel like they're on top of the world. Talk about a power stance.
Sarah Roberson6/13A La Carte Toilet Stalls
Liberty Market in Gilbert, Arizona, features an inventive locavore slant on casual American fare, set in a cafeteria-style bistro. Co-owner Joe Johnson wanted his commodes to reflect the individual contributions that go into running a restaurant, so the restroom’s five stalls are each designed by a different staff member and feature customized soundtracks. Johnson decorated his stall with a Vespa tire and murals of the Italian landscape he likes to explore on scooter, accompanied by driving music. On the other hand, recipes, photos of the eatery’s dishes, and dangling cooking tools garnish co-owner and chef David Traina’s stall.
Courtesy of Departure7/13Restroom: The Final Frontier
Atop the landmark Meiers & Frank building in Portland, Oregon, Departure restaurant is revered both for its innovative Pacific Coast cuisine and modern-day views from the city to Mount St. Helens. Decorated with artifacts from a round-the-world ocean liner from the 1920s, Departure takes diners from Portland’s industrial beginnings to its cutting-edge present. But the bathrooms go the next step and take guests into the future. The men’s room’s stainless-steel fixtures glow an eerie red thanks to the lighting gels affixed to the ceiling, while the ladies latrine glows a more compassionate gold, a more pleasing hue by which to primp.
Boyd Gaming8/13Cold War Commode
The quirky melding of pub fare, microbrewery, and sushi bar in Las Vegas’s Main Street Station Casino might explain its equally unconventional restroom. In the midst of its construction, designer Bob Snow learned the Berlin Wall was being torn down, and sent a friend to collect sections. “I couldn’t think of a better use of it than as the backdrop for the urinal in the men’s room. Yeah, I think everybody wanted to pee on that wall.” Above the graffiti-covered Berlin Wall slabs are authentic artwork and historic photographs of the oppressive obstacle that separated East Berliners from West. Today it remains a popular sight; even women sneak inside for a peek.
Hermitage Hotel9/13Come into My Office
Since the 1930s, Nashville’s famed steakhouse Oak Bar, in the Hermitage Hotel, has served the city’s politicians and elite business folk. Back then, the perfectly preserved Art Deco men’s room, dressed in leaded lime-green-and-black glass tile, was an unofficial office for men, where they lounged at the shoeshine station, scouring the financial pages and closing deals away from prying ears. Today, Nashville’s movers and shakers still patronize that restroom, noting there’s still room to broker a deal. That is, when women haven’t negotiated with the hotel security guard for a peek inside.
Triptych10/13Saturday Night Pissoir
The artsy San Francisco restaurant Triptych doubles as a funky gallery space for local artists to exhibit, and the menu boasts local favorites seasoned with exotic flavors, like diced ahi tartare with mango and Sriracha—so diners shouldn't be surprised by the eccentric bathroom scene. At the end of a mini-art gallery corridor, they step into the washroom, flick on the light, and watch the place turn into a 1970s disco. The Bee Gees provide background music for the oodles of throwback memorabilia—John Travolta posters, signed Starsky and Hutch photos, and framed records by artists like Donna Summer—that embellish the place.
Safe House, Ltd11/13WC for the CIA and KGB
Milwaukee’s spy-themed Safe House keeps visiting “agents” guessing, especially in the restroom. Do you female spies want to investigate the metal heart covering the privates on that naked Burt Reynolds poster? Whoops! That sounded alarms at the bar, where everyone is alerted that Burt is being molested. Quick, escape up a back stairway to Mata Hari*’*s bathroom, with its secret hideout! Over at the men’s room, male agents have a choice of two doors. Behind one is a brick wall with a sign reading “Whoa.” The other one leads to two stalls labeled "FBI" and "CIA."
Courtesy Ned Ludd12/13Rustic Restroom
In Portland, Oregon, Ned Ludd (after the Luddites' eponym) defines authentic American craft cookery in recipes and design. Chef Jason French incorporates local ingredients into his seasonal fare, serving it in a smell-the-pine-needles setting ornamented with rustic trinkets like a vintage copper egg pot. French personally designed Ned Ludd’s restrooms as a farmer's kitchen shed, with botanicals and natural elements driving the motif. French says the cooking artifacts are reminiscent of “when things took time and were made with purpose, so they were made better.”
Courtesy of Steamworks13/13For the Ladies
Steamworks, famed for Canada’s only steam-powered craft beer, also gained acclaim for its elevated gastropub fare, including items like quinoa salad and fresh fish. Business boomed. Then new city ordinances required owner Eli Gershkovitch to provide 20 toilets in the ladies room. Rather than fight city hall, he got creative. Noticing women often go to the washroom in pairs, he installed oversized stalls featuring two shorter-than-standard "toilettes," and a hedge-like partition that “provides privacy but allows them to continue their conversations without barriers,” Gershkovitch says.
