Best Public Restrooms '97

Best Public Restrooms

Café Magritte
254 E. Congress St.

READER'S PICK: The two bathrooms in Café Magritte's Bowler Room are popular pit stops for restaurant patrons. This does not seem unusual until you realize many of the visitors approach them as if taking a tour, some even with cameras poised for a snapshot inside. The unisex bathrooms, each previously labeled with only a mysterious number three, have been changed to even more mysterious number 10s. Plastic "silver" roses, a peacock clock, about 8 to 10 feet of faux-ivy vine, a rendering of the last supper, and unlikely uses for tiny, handpainted straw chairs are featured design elements of one john. Its neighbor is perhaps more consistent in its oddness, resembling a surrealist painting come to life: a black ladder adjacent to the sink has a roll of paper towels on one side, and a regular-sized wooden chair hooked onto the other, suspended there off the ground. A headless blue torso dispenses toilet paper from its neck. And two beautifully haunting mixed-media photographic portraits invite a few extra moments of contemplation, as does a diptych of international symbols posted above the toilet. These you'll have to see for yourself.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: The readers have spoken, so we explored the restrooms at the Tucson International Airport to flush out the finer points. Limited to male restrooms by an unfortunate genetic accident, he sampled at least five of the airport's finest, even going so far as to drink plenty of water beforehand to perform the basic public restroom functions, undaunted by fear he'd be arrested for potential perverse behavior involving multiple bathrooms and a notebook.

All have automatic faucets, flush urinals and toilets, and plenty of the necessary paper products. Our guess is it's the automatic plumbing that gets the readers' vote. Plus, they have a helpful "Have you forgotten anything?" sign, which imparts a sense of community and makes one feel looked after and cared for. Most importantly, all aspects of cleanliness are covered, the crowning jewel being an ominous-looking machine with a flashing red light above the urinals, which startled our researcher with an atomized blast of mildly floral "sanitary" smell. Though afraid it would bond to his contacts, as it settled upon the restroom he felt refreshed, relaxed, and ready for the next part of the day. All public restrooms should aspire to such clean functionality.

One Reader Roars

Best Restrooms

The urinals at the Century Park 16 Cinemas are great--they are waterless. Each one saves about 14,000 gallons of water per year.

--Karl Sachs

1998 Winner: Café Magritte
1996 Winner: Café Magritte
1995 Winner: Tucson International Airport