Bathroom Attendants in Restaurants

[Suzanne F]

Once again: does anyone know if this article ever happened? The reporter told me she'd email me with the publication information, but that has still not happened. (Not that I really believed her, given the WSJ's track record.)

[tommy]

she said that she'd post when it came out. from what i've seen, these things tend to take time. i suppose you could always call her.

[tryska]

Then there was the nightclub/disco I visited in the Bucktown section of Atlanta. This was not an upscale place and the bathrom didn't even have a stall assembly - just a toilet and a urinal. It was barely big enough to turn around in but they STILL had an attendant! I offered him a $2 tip to wait outside while I relieved myself. Just too bizarre. This was not the place where the girls in bikinis swing out over the sidewalk from the window and offer you $10 rides with them on the swing but it's just a few doors away.

i'll bite - which club was it? (i stay out of buckhead btw - so the girls on swings thing means nothign to me - i didn't even know we had that! *lol*)

[phaelon56]

I'll take a guess and say the the bar with the swing in the window is Mako's. The bartender did the 151 rum flamthrower trick a few times, blowing a spray of 151 out of her mouth across a lighter - falmes were about four feet loing and alsmost singed my eyebrows whil I was standing at the bar. The dance club was porbably Tongue and groove as it's one of the only integrated clubs there but I do recall that it was a few doors away from Mako's.

I was dragged to Buckhead by a late 20 something party-boy colleague while on a work trip to Atlanta. I found the whole scene there to be unexciting at best and actually a trifle depressing but to each their own. Word is that it's gone even further downhill in the past two years since I was there.

[tryska]

yes - it definitely has. Buckhead has never been my scene - way too many un-fabulous sorts drinking way too much. I'm a Midtown girl - the bars and clubs there are a bit funkier, and the people are too.

[stephenc]

I love em. Always strike up a conversation.

[JPW]

Wife's from Atlanta. I've been there a few times and would definitely agree to skip Buckhead.

A personal favorite of hers IIRC is the Claremont (sp?) Lounge where they have elderly, pregnant, and other differently bodied strippers while some of Atlanta's better bands play on stage.

On the topic of b'room attendants. Went to a wedding last summer in rural VA in a tent. 400 or so of the bride's mother's best friends. Had two smaller tents off the main tent for restrooms. With porta johns, portable sinks, toiletries, and attendants. I was told the ladies "room" had a chaise for lounging while in line.

[tryska]

i tried to go to the clermont on my last great all-night adventure. unfortunately we showed up at 3:02am, and they had closed at 3.

Edited December 11, 2003 by tryska (log)

[tommy]

I love em. Always strike up a conversation.

what do you generally discuss?

[Mayhaw Man]

I love em.  Always strike up a conversation.

what do you generally discuss?

I was wondering about that myself

I suppose that "Hey. Whatcha doing?" would not lead to very interesting conversation. I would think that the answer would be self evident

[Al_Dente]

i tried to go to the clermont on my last great all-night adventure. unfortunately we showed up at 3:02am, and they had closed at 3.

You didn't miss much-- well, except perhaps for the beer can crushing trick.

[tryska]

so it's not that much of a spectacle?

on the other hand i did get the grand cheshire bridge porn-store tour that night.

Edited December 11, 2003 by tryska (log)

[alacarte]

y'all, the article's running on the front page of today's WSJ. Not sure if this is password-only or not.

snaps for the pun-ful title:

Flush With Success, Bathroom Attendants Stage a Comeback

Until recently, bathroom attendants -- whose job is to linger in the bathroom and hand out everything from hand towels to breath mints -- seemed to be going the way of the chimney sweep. But a growing number of bars, restaurants and nightclubs are now hiring them for both men's and women's restrooms -- often to the chagrin of their embarrassed customers.

[Mayhaw Man]

I guess that I was always hoping that my first cover quote in the WSJ would be on something other than bathroom attendants. OTOH, I pretty much subscribe to the theory that any press is good press.

Won't my mother be proud, "my son, the toilet expert. ugghh".

[FistFullaRoux]

Password only... rats.

Article was picked up by wire services - click here (free-no signup)

[Mayhaw Man]

What I actually said, if memory serves, is that while I support their right to make an honest living, I am not very comfortable with it and I also don't feel like I need to feel obligated to tip when I go to the john at the House of Blues (the place I was referencing). Considering the price of beverages at the "House of Rules" it seems to me that tipping in the bathroom might be the definition of the term "they got me coming and going".

The other part of it is that what do people do in the rest room that would possibly demand a breath mint? (actually, I don't think that I want an answer to that )

[phaelon56]

Slightly OT as we may need a separate thread for restaurant "old-school" bathrooms..... a few short years I was in the men's room at Iberia Peninsula, a Portuguese restaurant in the Ironbound district on Newark NJ. They had a coin operated machine on the wall that dispensed big spritzes of:

Your choice of colognes for the Manly Man

• Hai Karate
  
• Brut
  
• Old Spice
  

I made up the title (it was not on the dispenser) and I'm not sure they really had Hai Karate but you get the idea. Really quite amusing and no - they did not have a bathroom attendant.

[phaelon56]

i still really don't mind a bathroom attendant.

Try standing at a urinal while some guy is watching your back waiting to hand you a paper towel and get his tip - it might change your opinion (although I imagine you'd need either a sex change or some amazing skills before you could try this one - you are female, correct?)

[tryska]

i am in fact female. which may be why i don't really have a problem with it. I've got the privacy of a stall, and the comfort in knowing that there's someone there who's job it is to wipe down the seats after hover-ers.

[Stigand]

Nobody is going to use drugs, have sex in the stalls, etc., while the bathroom is attended.

I always thought the logic behind bathroom attendants was this:

Once upon a time, certain restaurants and nightclubs realised they had a problem with people taking drugs in their toilets. This caused a problem for them, since they didn't want to be raided, lose their licence, etc. So they employed bathroom attendants on pitiful salaries (hence reliant on tips) to discourage this.

Now the fact is that the kind of places where people do drugs in the toilets are often pretty fashionable. (But remember, kids: drugs aren't cool. ) Customers came to associate the bathroom attendants with hip venues, and so restaurateurs who really didn't have to worry about drug use in their loos decided that employing attendants was a cheap way to create buzz.

Although I have absolutely no proof, this strikes me as believable (if ironic).

[lueid813]

I had a restroom attendant experience in Bangkok, Thailand, about a dozen years ago unlike any other I have ever had before or since.

I went to a nice restaurant with some other tourists I met at the hotel. Not one of the best restaurants in the city, I guess, but fancier and more expensive than anywhere else I had eaten in Thailand. The place was very large and built on wooden decks that overlooked the river, there were tableclothes and full table settings, etc.

Halfway through the meal I had to use the restroom. There was an attendant who had a supply of hot washclothes and towels. Pretty normal, so far. I proceeded to the urinal and, while performing the function normally associated with that bathroom fixture, the attendant came up behind me and, unannounced and unasked, gave me a very vigorous shoulder massage. After the initial surprise, shock really, wore off, and my mind partially returned to the pleasant buzz from a few Thai beers, I sort of enjoyed the two sensations, which I had never before experienced simultaneously: peeing and getting a massage.

I washed my hands and dropped a coin into the tip basket and went back to the table.

A while later another man from my table went to the restroom. I kept my eye on him when he returned to the table. He looked a little undone. I asked, "Did something unusual happen in the restroom?" and he burst out laughing. At least then I knew it wasn't just me. The women at the table were very curious. We told the story. The other guys were undecided whether they wanted to try it or wait and go to the restroom back at the hotel.

Edited April 15, 2004 by lueid813 (log)

[rancho_gordo]

When I was a young buck on my first trip to Paris, I went to use the restrooms downstairs in a popular cafe. I was horrified to find a woman attendant monitoring the two rooms. I felt so sorry for her! I went in to the Gents, did my biz and returned to the community area where I dropped a generous coin into her tray, but I did so quitely and discreetly because I was so embaressed for this woman who had to hang out in toilets all day. At this point in my life I had never imagined such a thing.

As I climbed the stairs to go back to the cafe, she yelled up, "Pardon, sir, you forgot the tip!". I wanted to die. I tried to be cool and said, "I left it in the tray.". She yelled up, in a rather nasty voice, "No! I don't think so!" At the point I kept going and was convinced she deserved her job.

[mantee]

The first bathroom attendant that made a huge impression on me was in Miami. She was in the toilet 45 years, "Place For Steak." It was on 79th St. causeway. I was young but with all big players, she always helped me to stay sober, know the cons, and let me go out the back door. We became friends, I cooked southern greens and would bring her a bowl. She put 3 children though college. I never got caught in a raid! I think to this day I give advice due to her.

[Pan]

The first bathroom attendant that made a huge impression on me was in Miami. She was in the toilet 45 years

Your story is excellent, but this is my favorite quote from it.

[tryska]

after watching The Hot Chick this weekend - i sort of understand where you males are coming form as far as bathroom attendants go.