May 14, 2007
Rating the District's Bathrooms
We love it when local bloggers take it upon themselves to explore the nooks and crannies of our city and report back to us. Today we were introduced to a new blog by Lia Pendarvis with the promising (though hilariously unflattering) title, The Lavatory Lady. As a mother of two young boys who are not only always on the go but often have "to go," Lia confesses she spends an inordinate chunk of her daily routine hunting down public bathrooms in the metro area. But instead of privately complaining (or gushing) about the state of the many facilities she comes across, Lia's started sharing her impressions with the rest of us.
My husband and I love going out and pretty much get a date night once a month, also around this time of year we have tons of family gatherings in restaurants around the city and these two events allow me to gather bathroom intel. Now that I've started the blog, I take about an hour each week to rate a few of the downtown places before I pick up my children. My M.O. is walking in, sitting at the bar and ordering a club soda with lime. [If I ate or had a drink at all of these places I'd have to change my name to the Overweight Alcoholic Lady]. I then excuse myself to the rest room and take a few minutes to rate it based on criteria I have come up with over the years.
Those criteria include Cleanliness, Soap Quality, Hot Forceful Water, Drying Apparatus, General Smell, Trash Receptacle, Door Locks, Lighting and Decor. The result of Lia's efforts is a growing database of brief bathroom reviews, handily referenced in the right column of her site. We're still clicking our way through, but highlights so far include the nomination of Sonoma as having the worst restaurant bathroom in the city and photos of what might be mold inside the john at Rumors. Of course the more positive reviews are probably more helpful to her readers, but the negative ones are by far more entertaining. What are your nominations for the best/worst bathrooms in the city?
Photo courtesy Lia Pendarvis
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The Argonaut on H St NE has fairly terrifying bathrooms. I know they're going for the dive-y feel, but the guys bathroom is pretty bad.
Dan's Cafe, hands down.
The bathroom at "The Swerve" (downstairs at the Irish Times) should be firebombed and closed forever.
I vote Dan's also, usually they only have one ex working, and the handle is broken on the toilet, making it near impossible to flush.
Latrines at scout camp smell better than that place.
Pretty much any Joe Englert establishment takes the prize. Hey, I love his bars but he needs to realize that older patrons don't want to spend a lot of time (or money) in a place competing for Worst Toilet in Scotland.
Chris:
I second that. Englert's bars are a good thing for H Street, but every time I'm in one of his places and I see the filthy bathroom I have to wonder..... if his staff lets the public bathroom look like this, what does the kitchen look like?
This may work for college students. But probably not for the rest of us.
I've not been in it since they put the stage in...but, back in the day, Asylum had the most disgusting bathroom I've ever encountered.
I'm assuming the DC government has no procedure in place for inspecting bathrooms for basic hygiene? So many places in DC have really filthy bathrooms, to the point that it's a health and sanitation issue. And they seem to remain filthy year after year.
It's true. The Englert restroom model sets the standard for filthiness in this city. The Capitol Lounge and Big Hunt come to mind.
And I don't know if it's been upgraded since the place changed hands a few months ago, but Nanny O'Brien's was up there near the top of the list, as well.
Oh, and I don't know if the ladies' facility is a lot worse than the men's toilet, but there are plenty of restrooms around town that are much, much filthier than the one at The Raven.
I have heard scary things about the kitchen at the PourHouse, I know at least one guy who refuses to eat there.
Best bathroom when you really need it? Front Page in Dupont. Just walk in the door above Buffalo Billiards, walk to the front bar like you're looking for somebody, then walk in the back to where the dinner tables are. Do your thing downstairs, walk out the back door and head to your real destination. Dudes in front assume you're going back to eat or drink, dudes in the back think you've been drinking in the front. No one is ever the wiser. It's magical.
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