What’s in Your Bathroom?

By Candace MacDonald

Restaurant Hospitality recently published a great article highlighting some spectacular bathrooms.  We’re in the detail business here at AF&Co., so we loved this piece and couldn’t agree more.  Your brand experience must carry all the way through every touch point, and yet many restaurateurs treat the restrooms as an after thought.  Depending on your concept, it can also be a great place to let guests know about upcoming promotions.  Everyone visits the bathroom so use that real estate!  We polled our office and here are a few bathrooms that are well worth the trip:

Bang Bang (San Diego) As publicists, we can’t help but drool over the press this bathroom has gotten.  As people, we can’t help but drool over floor to ceiling Ryan Gosling images.

The Avenue (Columbus) This stunning “steak tavern” is  reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s with classic black & white checkerboard stone floor in the bar, red vinyl booths, and red vinyl tufted chairs.  The details extend to the bathroom with vintage cartoons accenting elegant finishes. (Plus the steak seasoning is incredible)

The Progress (San Francisco) This 2015 James Beard Foundation nominee for Best New Restaurant attends to every detail…including the wrapping on the toilet paper in the bathroom.  That’s style.

Gitane: (San Francisco)  We might agree with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Paolo Lucchesi’s assessment from a few years ago – this might just be the best bathroom in San Francisco.

Mourad: (San Francisco) This entire restaurant is stunning and we can’t get enough of Chef Lahlou’s Moroccan menu.  But really…the tile in the bathroom is stunning, to say the least.  It’s a communal bathroom with five different stalls.  You’ll want to take a seat in all of them.

Did we miss your favorite?  Let us know!  We’re always expanding our list of favorite toilets…er…restaurants!