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Ice Cubes in Le Bernardin Urinal?


Varmint

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Peter King is a writer for Sports Illustrated, focusing on American football. In today's column, he wrote that he went to Le Bernardin and noticed that the urinal in the men's room had ice cubes in it. He wants to know why would they do that. Any ideas?

Click here for the article, then scroll down to the heading, "Factoid That May Interest Only Me."

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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You hang around here long enough, you see everything:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=724859

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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There are a few restaurants that do this that I know of.. Turkish Kitchen in NYC comes to mind immediately.. My father has told me stories about going to places when he was a child that did this..

Besides being fun to melt the ice, I think this is done to show that someone is constantly cleaning and taking care of the bathroom.. To be able to maintain frozen ice in a urinal takes effort.. Also I think it shows that everything has been considered by the restaurant and its staff.

Edited by Daniel (log)
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Actually, I think the ice is there as a target.

To wit, a couple of years ago, there was a home furnishings invention contest that was won by a guy who produced a toilet and a urinal with a small fly done in blue glaze in the bowl, just off of center to provide a target.

This is quite popular in European airports now. I'm not sure if it works in rigorous studies, but anecdotally, I would certainly pee on the fly instead of the wall. But I don't pee on the walls currently.

Targeted pisser

Besides, what restaurant would want a fly in its urinal? I think that would send the wrong message. So, ice is something that they have that is cheap and entertaining.

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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is it somehow related to this? :blink:

toilet ice is better than you think...?!

ewww...my mind is filled with this image....i need coffee.

Edited by chezcherie (log)

"Laughter is brightest where food is best."

www.chezcherie.com

Author of The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook ,The I Love Trader Joe's Party Cookbook and The I Love Trader Joe's Around the World Cookbook

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During the 50's, 60's when I was growing up, more often than not, restaurant and bar urinals would have ice. Someone said it up-thread - it's used to decrease odor - especially if you just ate asparagus.

Rich Schulhoff

Opinions are like friends, everyone has some but what matters is how you respect them!

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We used to float a Cheerio in the bowl when my son was learning how to pee standing up. It worked pretty well. I'm considering going back to that system, as his technique's gotten a little sloppy lately.

P.S. Really delighted that I managed to relate this post to food.

Can you pee in the ocean?

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During the 50's, 60's when I was growing up, more often than not, restaurant and bar urinals would have ice. Someone said it up-thread - it's used to decrease odor - especially if you just ate asparagus.

Exactly right - the practice used to be common for odour control (the SI writer is clearly a callow youth) in restaurants, golf club locker rooms and better drinking establishments, but not at the gas station, because it also, as Daniel pointed out, announced that someone was paying attention and signified that you were in a place you couldn't afford.

Of course that was in the days when many dining establishments still had bathroom attendents and before the environmental impact of dichlorobenzene urinal pucks had been considered. Urinal pucks are now verbotten in many school districts (perhaps for other reasons) and civic jurisdictions that have studied their impact.

Sometimes evil things happen to men of the cloth. [scroll down to "What's your biggest fear?"]

Want more evil? Here's the brochure copy for "Absolve", a product from (needless to say), Beaver Research:

Absolve

"Takes the dirty work out of cleaning up vomit, food spills, incontinency and other malodor sources. Instantly gels and binds liquid and semi-liquid accidents for quick and easy removal. Instantly deodorizes the accident with OCP formula. Instantly covers unsightly accidents. Gel safely flushes down toilets and drains. Biodegradable, environmentally safe and non-toxic."

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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The practice is still extant in leading drinking establishments of the European Union and the Commonwealth.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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Want more evil? Here's the brochure copy for "Absolve", a product from (needless to say) Beaver Research:

Absolve

"Takes the dirty work out of cleaning up vomit, food spills, incontinency and other malodor sources. Instantly gels and binds liquid and semi-liquid accidents for quick and easy removal. Instantly deodorizes the accident with OCP formula. Instantly covers unsightly accidents. Gel safely flushes down toilets and drains. Biodegradable, environmentally safe and non-toxic."

What's evil with absolve? It's just gum zanthane (xanthan gum) which is a type of polysaccharide, and thusly closely related to starch and easily fermentable in the sewer.

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

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Want more evil? Here's the brochure copy for "Absolve", a product from (needless to say) Beaver Research:

Absolve

"Takes the dirty work out of cleaning up vomit, food spills, incontinency and other malodor sources. Instantly gels and binds liquid and semi-liquid accidents for quick and easy removal. Instantly deodorizes the accident with OCP formula. Instantly covers unsightly accidents. Gel safely flushes down toilets and drains. Biodegradable, environmentally safe and non-toxic."

What's evil with absolve? It's just gum zanthane (xanthan gum) which is a type of polysaccharide, and thusly closely related to starch and easily fermentable in the sewer.

Nothing evil at all about Absolve, but rather the devil's work that brings it forth, especially in this unfortunate era of the fruit-driven 'martini'. :biggrin:

Yours in absolution,

J.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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Sometimes evil things happen to men of the cloth. [scroll down to "What's your biggest fear?"]

Jamie, where do you find this stuff ?

I read it first in Modern Janitor.

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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It's far simpler than you are thinking. A urinal full of stale ice is cheaper than running water for a couple of hours. If you have a full ice maker, and you have/want to dump the contents daily, might as well put it where it can save you some money in the long run. Keeps from hogging a sink during melting timeas well.

There used to be a bar in the family, and that's why it was done there at least. The other "features" (aim and odor control) are bonuses.

Screw it. It's a Butterball.
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