A Valentine's idea for restaurants with unisex bathrooms
I'm not sure why the idea of a Toronto restaurant promoting Valentine's sex in its unisex bathroom, as reported by the restaurant critic of the Star, makes me squeamish.
But it does.
"'We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms,' says chef/co-owner Donna Dooher [of Mildred's Temple Kitchen], pointing to lingering weekday lunches as a popular time. 'We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend.'" ...
Toronto Public Health is OK with it, as long as the kitchen isn't involved. I guess bodily fluids are bodily fluids.
It looks as if there's nothing sketchy about the restaurant itself. Just consider the photo from its Web site above. Sorry, I don't have one of the bathroom itself; but there is one with the Star story.
I'm probably being naive about this. After all, think about how many small places in Baltimore -- even Starbuckses -- have one unisex bathroom. You think no one has ever thought to ... have a rendezvous ... in those?
With the money local restaurants have lost because of the snow, maybe those that have unisex bathrooms ought to consider a similar promotion. It would certainly bring customers in.
Comments
It would certainly bring customers in. Or drive them away.
Posted by: Dahlink | February 8, 2010 1:04 PM
SNL's "Love Toilet" ad comes to mind -- and not in a good way.
Posted by: hmpstd | February 8, 2010 1:29 PM
or be gay, then it really doesn't matter if the bathroom is unisex or not :)
though anyone taking up the bathroom for more than a few minutes is just inconsiderate.
Posted by: Sam | February 8, 2010 3:39 PM
"though anyone taking up the bathroom for more than a few minutes is just inconsiderate."
Well, a few minutes should be enough time, you wouldn't want the soup to get cold now would you?
Posted by: Jack Ziegler | February 8, 2010 4:56 PM
From what my friends who are in to such things tell me, most of the thrill is of the forbidden.
So, they've sure killed the buzz at Mildred's.
Posted by: Lissa | February 8, 2010 5:24 PM
That is kind of seamy, promoting it like that. Some things are best left unspoken.
From the top of the Washington Monument, you can see forever.
Posted by: Laura Lee | February 8, 2010 5:57 PM
I think Lissa has a point about the thrill of the forbidden.
It seems like more and more we are being sold sanitized and safe versions of the forbidden. Vegas is practically built on this concept. Another example is the faux dive bar. People want to feel like they are a rebel and a bad a$$, but they want to do so without any real risk or danger.
Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | February 8, 2010 8:35 PM
RoCK: There's something about this that seems particularly Canadian.
On my first visit to Toronto, my native friends insisted I was staying in a rather shady part of town. By my estimate, it wasn't much worse than some of the nicer neighborhoods in Baltimore.
That is, until I saw the prostitutes camping the corner fast food joint.
My verdict of Toronto still stands today. No stench of stale urine, no trash -- not a real city.
That's what I see here -- a sanitized attempt at serious libertine sluttiness.
Posted by: El Generalissimo | February 9, 2010 2:29 AM
It has been some time since I visited Toronto, but when I was a kid we went there a lot. It was called "Toronto the Good" and had such strict blue laws that you couldn't even buy an aspirin on Sunday.
I hear things have changed. Can't wait to get back.
I'm not eating in this restaurant, though.
Posted by: Lissa | February 9, 2010 8:47 AM
Well, if they did this in Denver you could join the "mile High Club" without ever leaving the ground.
Posted by: Retired in Elkridge | February 9, 2010 2:47 PM
RiE - welcome back! You've been missed.
Posted by: Joyce W. | February 9, 2010 3:05 PM
I agree with Lissa... no thrill, no fun. I know at least one local bar that gives a bell a hearty ring when someone(s) have been in the bathroom for enough time to lead the mind to the naughty. That's much more fun. "Oh, no one will notice", and then everyone does notice one's re-emergence, perhaps to applause.
Then again, if everyone else is doing it, why would i bother?
Posted by: Meekrat | February 9, 2010 3:35 PM
I'm sure this will attract customers.
Posted by: Bathrooms | February 25, 2010 3:47 AM
Potty spam @ 3:47!
Posted by: sean | February 25, 2010 11:11 AM