Orlando Speedworld Bathroom Seems to Be (Unintentionally) Modeled After Surgeries Found in Horror Films

Orlando Speed World
19164 E Colonial Dr
Orlando, FL 32820-3701
www.orlandospeedworld.org

Where is it?

After paying admission, walk up to the main track along the main walkway there. As you do, you'll end up heading through a paved divide between two white single-story buildings. Both of these are concession stands: The one on your left (with your back to the parking lot) is where you can get hot dogs, hamburgers, soft drinks and the like; the one on the right is where you get beer (from what I saw, only Bud and Bud Light -- Budweiser gets a lot of signage here).

Just past the building is the main walkway, running left to right, and in front of that is the main seating benches, which stretch about 50 feet in the air. The place's quarter-mile track is on the other side of the benches; go left or right, to the edge of the benches, and then climb up to get a seat and a view of the track. (There are some other seating areas further long as well, if you follow the perimeter of the track.)

But at the junction, to get to the bathrooms, you must turn left and pass the concession stand there. Keep going to the next building, which looks a lot like that first building, and you'll see the entrance to the restrooms there, which large painted signs indicating which room is for what.

What's it like?

Tucked away in the near-rural environs of Bithlo, east of Orlando, this is Orlando's version of NASCAR's minor leagues. The complex is large and contains two distinct race tracks: One for drag racing and one for Florida's NASCAR league, called FASCAR, which includes races from stock cars, modifieds, and the like. Behind the main track is a pit for mechanics and drivers to prep for races.

It's an old complex and certainly looks like it needs some upkeep in spots. The seating areas are sketchy and shaky at best. There's lots of cracked concrete and trash. Yet at the same time it's homey and got character. For Orlando, a city that's always rebuilding itself, this place is old and worn down and a bit backwoods in appearance, but the people are genuine friendly and tend to be enthusiasts of the sport. Not exactly a place for everyone but certainly surreal and enjoyable in its own right.

The bathrooms are unique as well. My visit occurred at the start of races, so the toilets were empty and mostly unused. On the surface, they look like concrete cousins to the mass-market toilets experienced in England, like the ones at Bicester Village or across the way from the Tower of London. They are large, filled with many urinals and have lots of concrete. But those were also a lot nicer than these. (And I've been told that if I visit at the end of the evening, the toilets are truly horrifying. Glad I didn't do that!)

There is a strange, horror film clinic feel to this place. The walls and floor are concrete, as stated. The walls are white and with plenty of dust and dirt on them. The floors are painted deep red and have several spots where the paint has either been worn off or the concrete has been chunked out.

The red color plays a major role here. In addition to the floor, its the color that trims the supply cabinet closet door and is the color of the sign for the restroom outside. The red provides a sharp contrast to the whiteness of the rest of the place and really makes you feel like you've stepped into some haunted house or similarly scary environment.

The bathroom is set up in three distinct sections. The front area includes the entrance, supply closet and sinks. The sinks are the standard white porcelain fixtures you'll find at most semi-outdoor bathrooms, including many of the U.S. national parks, like the main station toilets at Arches and the Yavapai Point bathroom at the Grand Canyon. These were somewhat clean when I arrived, but they weren't exactly the cleanest sinks I've seen. The sealant on the edges was worn, and there were plenty of mildew stains. Also, for what was about five total sinks in all, only one of the sinks had a soap dispenser on it, and it was one of those generic supermarket brand soap pump containers (a red soap, no less).

The middle section is where the urinals are. Like at the Tower of London, there are two rows of them, each on opposite walls of one another and facing one another. No privacy barriers. Lots of chipped paint and gouges in the floor. No automatic flushes. Really, kind of creepy in its attempt at sterility.

The back area is where the toilet stalls are, as well as another row of urinals. The stalls are made of drywall and have bright yellow curtains for doors. This, of course, also adds to the clinical feel here. I know the designers were aiming for an old-style garage feel (like what's seen at Cruisers Cafe), but given the worn out state of the rest of the place it just ends up looking like you're walking into a black market doctor's office for an operation you really don't want but are being forced to get. It's creepy. The toilets aren't really that clean either (reminiscent of the ones I saw at Catherine Palace in Russia), which doesn't help either.

Worse still, if you're in the stall and a child runs by quickly, then the curtain lifts some in the after breeze and suddenly your assumed privacy is ruined. Not exactly what you want to have happen when you're on the throne and a bunch of drunk FASCAR fans are relieving themselves right in front of you, if you catch my drift.

Also, at the far end of this chamber is an exhaust fan. Not sure why it's there since the place smelled pretty ghastly, but the fan was covered with dust and cobwebs. Ick.

Finally, I was here in Florida's winter time. I am thinking than in the summer, the place is crawling with insects (as evident by the filthy exhaust fan). Top that with the summer heat and this probably makes for one truly horrifying and uncomfortable experience -- one that rivals the horrors of Kappy's, I am guessing.

Marks out of 10:

2. Pretty scary, I hate to say. I feel bad for women, who can't just pee and go.

Comments to the Management:

Definitely needs another coat of paint and some serious scrubbing. This doesn't have to be impeccable, considering it's really just a stadium bathroom, but if an outhouse at 10,000 feet high is considerably more polished than this, then some work is definitely needed. Aiming to equal some lower-end national park bathrooms would be idea.

Restroom at Homey Holopaw Restaurant a Little Too Homespun

Holopaw Restaurant
Erlo Bronson Hwy (SR 192)
Holopaw, FL USA

Where is it?

Enter the restaurant. Once you do, you'll see the cashier counter to your immediate left, against the eastern wall of the building. To your right is the entire dining room.

From the main entrance, with your back to it, look across the way, to the back wall of the restaurant. There, you'll see a door facing you. On the door is a sign -- a piece of paper with some red handwriting, really, reading, "Hunter Special: ICE a 'Buck' a Bag." Above that sign is a sign for the men's room (not the ladies' room), and another sign reading, "Please keep this door closed."

Well, go through that door. Once you do, you enter a very dark hallway that contains a slew of storage items (supply closet, soft drink canisters, milk crates, etc.) as well as the bathrooms.

Turn right after you pass through the door (be sure to close the door behind you -- you don't want any trouble) and walk towards the other end of the hallway. The second door you come to will be the ladies' room, and the final door in the hallway (on the left) is the men's.

What's it like?

This roadside stop in this very small, middle-of-nowhere town looks and feels like one of those middle-of-nowhere diners you always see on TV shows in middle-of-nowhere places. And to be honest, that's essentially what the place is. The signs posted in it it hint that the clientele consists mostly of the few farmers that live in the area and hunters, who live to venture into the surrounding swamp for their kill.

It's also on SR 192, which is a semi-busy highway that leads visitors in St. Cloud or Kissimmee (and in that respects Disney) towards Florida's Atlantic beaches (192 dead-ends in Melbourne, which is about 20 minutes south of Cocoa Beach).

So given that, I imagine the place gets a decent amount of drive-by traffic (as was my case), but outside of that it's a locals establishment through and through. While inside, I was the only person who didn't seem to know the hostess by first name though that wasn't an issue at all. We were welcomed openly here.

The food here is your basic truck stop variety menu. Burgers, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, pot roast -- not quite diner end (though similar in some ways), but not quite a truck stop either, if you catch my drift.

The place also sells traditional Florida Cracker dishes, like fried turtle and gator, which I imagine is more for the tourists passing through than anything else. I don't know many Florida natives that actually eat these things willingly any more -- at festivals and as novelties, sure, but not since the advent of Publix, if you will). Also, the Cracker dishes were about double the price of everything else on the menu, which also leads me to the tourist idea.

Anyway, I had a hamburger, which was decent enough but forgettable. My companion had chicken fried steak, which didn't thrill her too much. Service was friendly and the place is friendly enough -- as hinted earlier, it's not one of those tough local spots where they look at you funny if you happen not to be one of the regulars. Still, outside of being a passing curiosity, I didn't see much here worth re-visiting.

And the state of the bathrooms kind of sealed the deal on that last sentiment as well. This is not a pleasant place to make a pit stop.

After heading down that long, dark hallway to the restroom itself (which really is the scariest trek I've made to a bathroom since visiting Kappy's or -- for entirely different reasons -- Famas Pizza) you find yourself in a decent-sized one-bagger room.

The walls here are painted concrete and pretty grimy. The floor is covered in that old-style of wood paneling that used to cover floors in the 70s, only it's split and coming apart in places, and the base boards seem to be peeling away from the walls. (Is the bathroom actually shrinking as I'm in it, I wondered? Again, some reminders of Kappy's.)

The door is your basic light white-painted wood variety, with a rusted latch across it, serving as its only lock (and you get the impression, while staring at it, that it's been a lock that's been busted open a few times). The light switch, beside the lock, is equally decrepit.

The toilet, sink and urinal are all your basic white porcelain models, though they are pretty worn down and stained in spots. The chrome plumbing coming out of them are all rusted over in spots and look like they need replacement soon.

The sink sits on one of those cabinet/sink uni-pieces that you can pick up cheap at the hardware store -- except this one looked like it was handed down over the generations. Or, at the very least, it was handed down to the place from Country Ham 'n' Eggs.

Also, some basic white tiles have been stuck to the wall behind the sink -- perhaps to aid with splashing or some sort. Not exactly decorative but a bit similar to what was accomplished at the Town House Restaurant, only that place pulled it off much, much better.

A trashcan filled with paper towels sat at the base of the sink cabinet. A slip of toilet seat covers hung above the toilet, along with a sign reading "Please put paper towels in the trash can" -- which of course made me question the nature of the sign some. Were people throwing paper towels in the toilet or were they throwing toilet seat covers in the trash?

Of course, the slip of toilet seat covers was empty, so I wondered if perhaps the latter were true. You never know, some times.

Also, the roll of toilet paper hanging on the wall was down to the nub -- and I imagined there was more paper under the sink I didn't feel comfortable looking inside to see.

Through all of this, the ceiling fan hanging above me twirled at high velocity, which made the place feel pretty breezy. Not as breezy as, say, Southwest Indian Traders, but not too far off.
In fact, the piece-meal construction here kind of had me thinking a lot of Southwest Indian Traders, only I think the owners and employees here actually use these toilets, where I have a good feeling the ones at Southwest Indian Traders are for clients and passers-by only.
If you're in the area and need to go and can't afford to turn back to Harmony (about 10 minutes westward on 192) or head on to Melbourne (about 20 minutes eastward), then skip this place's bathroom and go across the street to the town's gas station. It's not much of an improvement but it is a little better.

Marks out of 10:

2.
Comments to the Management:

Needs some serious renovation. I appreciate the homespun feel of the restaurant and the good nature of the staff, but this bathroom seems to take that a little too much too heart. A line must be drawn somewhere.

DIY Store Needs to Take its Own Advice

Homebase
Botley Road
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX2 0JJ

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreLocatorFlow?slsid=195&slpc=ox201ra&sltwn=&sldist=9.73

Where is it?

From the store entrance, head right past the tills and towards the customer service desk. Head left past two aisles and right into the third. At the end you’ll see the door to the toilets. Men's off to the right and women to the left.


What’s it like?

Homebase are one of the main purveyors of those things DIY enthusiasts love. The store is targeted at those who don’t like the smell of sawdust, those who would really like it if DIY didn’t require quite so much patience and the mess and dust that it inevitably causes.

I guess this is an approach that the staff who run these stores take to the toilet facilities. The toilets are a prime example of a bodged and uncared for set of facilities. Let’s start with the walls. They may have been painted sometime since the building was built, but with the amount of dirt on them I really doubt it.

Then go to the toilet. When it was painted whoever did it slopped the paint all over the cistern. Neglecting to clear it up. Then you look at the floor. An example of such poor foundations to a floor I’ve never seen. If another earthquake hits Oxford you’d have to be afraid that it was going to open up into a chasm of significant proportions. If you flush the cistern then you get such a torrent of water, that has such force its shocking. Is this the devils own toilet?

The urinal is similarly distgusting. So why oh why I ask is the sink so clean. It was the one and only thing that had received attention during the last few months. I’d not say it was spotless, but compared to the rest of the place it seemed so.


Marks out of 10:

2. Ok if you really don’t have to touch anything.


Comments to the management:

If this is an advert for what you sell in your stores I will not be coming back. I doubt you even meet the Health and Safety requirements for your employees, let alone the public!

Oxford Train Station Toilet Remarkably Filthy, Crammed

Oxford Railway Station
Park End Street, Oxford
United Kingdom
www.nationalrail.co.uk

Where is it?

In between the ticket counters and the train gates, on the back wall of the complex.

What's it like?

This is one of those standard train terminals with a central sitting area, a selection of various vendors (book store, walk-up cafe, sandwich shop, etc.), a ticket counter area, toilet facilities and such. It's a few blocks away from central Oxford, which makes it a good place to start your tour of the city. Other than that, it's a pretty bland location.

The toilets here are very Teutonic and not very clean, with blue walls and concrete on the floor. They are small and somewhat crammed, and when I visited there were so many people in there that it felt like a subway station at rush hour.

(In fact, it was so crowded that I couldn't even snap any good pictures -- besides not being given the chance to be discreet, I didn't have room to stretch enough to take out my camera!)

The urinals are lined up against the front wall. Behind them is a row of toilet stalls, about three or four. Maybe 2 feet separates the former from the latter -- which, of course, doesn't give you much room to breath here. The sinks are at the front, and if you walk in while someone's at them, you get stuck in the doorway because of the lack of room to move around.

The urinals all had these bright orange urinal cakes in them (more cylindrical in shape than the traditional hockey-puck-shaped ones I'm used to), which emitted a strong chemical stench. That unpleasant aroma mixed poorly with some sharp urine smells, as well as some horrid fecal smells.

The toilets were no better, as the two stalls I visited (the first was too gross to use) looked like they'd not been cleaned in the better part of two weeks.

Marks out of 10:

2. Just a disgusting experience. I wanted to shower after leaving.

Comments to the Management:

Space-wise, you may want to consider a better layout, since the one you have now makes it difficult for more than two people to use the place at once -- quite a setback for a place that should accommodate 10 easily. Also, I realize this place is visited by a lot of students, many of which could care less about cleanliness, but just because they don't, that doesn't mean you have to as well. I realize it's hard to clean such crowded restrooms, but there has to be a different way -- if airports can do it, why can't you?

Expect Foul Odors and Mildew Galore from this Horrid CVS Pharmacy's Bathroom

CVS Pharmacy
4717 EAST HIGHWAY 80
SAVANNAH, GA USA
www.cvs.com

Where is it?

Head to the back of the store. Once there, you'll see a small hallway opening just left of the pharmacy counter. Go down there and you'll find the bathrooms.

(Or, as you'll learn below, you can just close your eyes and follow the foul smelling air to its origin.)

What's it like?

This straightforward pharmacy and convenience store is located in a new-ish shopping center in between Savannah's historic district and Tybee Island, which house the city's oceanfront neighborhoods. From the outside, it looks clean and predictable -- a strip mall store from start to finish.

Inside, you get the same impression. The store houses a dozen or so aisles, each containing a variety of health-related and non-health-related merchandise. It's a clean store, well lit and unassuming. A standard chain store, through and through.

Head towards the bathroom, and you think you'll experience the same strip mall store nonchalance. But once you enter that hallway, things turn on you pretty quickly. The sharp smell of feces tinges the air, along with the undercurrent of ammonia.

Step in further, and things get worse. The stink gets much more foul the closer you get, ultimately becoming horrifically malodorous once you step inside. (The fact that I found the door ajar while approaching the toilets didn't help, and, as mentioned above, at a certain point in the store you can literally follow your nose to the bathroom.) Piercing, hold-your-nose stink, that's what this is. Someone-just-died-in-here stink -- also an appropriate description.

On a scale of bathroom stinkiness, I rate this one below (meaning, they are more foul-smelling) such putrid-smelling locales as the recently reviewed Pulkovo International Airport, Russian Museum and Hermitage Museum, all in St. Petersburg, Russia, Total Wine Raleigh-Triangle, or even the Awful Waffle House I visited in Walterboro, SC. And that was one of the worst bathrooms I visited this year!

What's ironic is that inside, the place looks clean on the surface. White drywall walls, bland gray linoleum floor, white toilet and sink. Nothing flashy, but nothing that would make you think it was this smelly.

Yet standing in there less than 3 seconds, I realized that my olfactory senses would not adjust quickly to the stench around me and I quickly hurried up with my business so I could leave.

I wish I could say that the smell was the only fault I found here. Sadly, it wasn't. While the place seems clean on the forefront, a closer examination revealed plenty of disgusting elements: The toilet itself had some strong hard water stains in it, the sink had much mildew in it, and the trash can beside it looked like it had been used repeatedly as a receptor of vomit. Just disgusting.

Ironically, I saw a slew of cleaning supplies sitting on the far wall opposite the toilet, sink and trash can (which were set into the same end of the bathroom) -- and all of it, apparently, looked unused. Also, there was no toilet paper or hand towels to be found in the bathroom, leading me to think that if one had to endure a longer visit here, he/she would ultimately suffer the consequences.

Finally, While there was no TP near the toilet, there was an abundance of fliers for a martial arts tournament taking place nearby in the coming weeks sitting on the toilet tank. Unfortunately, the fliers were made of thick paper stock, making it a poor choice for use as a wiping element.

Marks out of 10:

2. Foul smells, dirty and lacking necessary supplies. A popular store like this should know better.

Comments to the Management:

First of all, put a spring hinge on the bathroom door, so people don't have to smell the foulness emanating from this place as they approach the pharmacy. That's supposed to be a sterile environment, after all! Next, clean the place, for goodness sakes! The supplies are right there! Sure, the walls and floor were clean, but the sink, toilet and trashcan were atrocious. In fact, just get a new trashcan instead of cleaning it -- not worth keeping. Ick. And put up some air fresheners!

Uncle Bubba's Oyster House An Utter Mess

Uncle Bubba's Oyster House
104 Bryan Woods Road
Savannah, GA USA 31410
www.unclebubbas.com

Where is it?

A bit tricky to find. From the entrance, snake around the front enclave (which contains the giftshop) and twist through a long hallway into the main dining room. From there, look to the left, for a large grill station. Just past that, while facing the rear of the place, is a smaller hallway. The bathrooms are in there.

What's it like?

I begin with saying that this review is based on my second visit to this spinoff of the Paula Deen southern cooking empire. (Uncle Bubba is Paula Deen's brother, who just happens to also be a "great southern cook," though many of her recipes are found on the menu.)

The first time I was here, I found the meal decadent but delicious -- great grilled oysters, succulent shrimp and grits, outrageously flavorful crab stew. It was so great that when I decided to return to Savannah for a long weekend, all I could think about was getting back to Bubba's.

Of course, the problem here is that my second trip to Bubba's was one of the worst dining experiences I've had in recent memory. The crab stew (my favorite item last time out) this time contained little crab and came covered with mounds of cheddar cheese, which in turn prohibited me from tasting anything other than cheese. A similar heavy coating of cheese covered the famous Paula Deen crab dip, which also tasted little of crab as a result (and the cheese layer was so thick that it proved difficult to eat with the accompanying tortilla chips -- each time you dipped a chip, the entire cheese layer came with it). Yet even more cheese (low-grade parmesan) topped the grilled oysters, which this time tasted flat, poorly cooked and slimy instead of plump and luscious, like last time. Clearly, the place has decided to follow the TGI Friday's concept that bad food somehow becomes more palatable when covered with ungodly amounts of melted cheese.

Top it off with some truly awful service (we waited 35 minutes just to get the soup, and when we got it, the cheese topping wasn't even melted!), higher-than-before prices, a bar that was out of the delicious Georgia-brewed Sweetwater Ale, and a feeling that I might vomit soon after leaving, and all I can say is that it was truly awful. I've never been in a place where the experience was so top to tails in the span of a single visit (and my first visit came a mere 10 months earlier). I don't think I'll ever return -- it was that disappointing.

What's ironic, of course, is that when we spoke to people in town and told them how awful it was, all we got in return were looks of sheer shock. "Impossible! Not from Paula and Bubba!" they said. Well, it was possible. (Though I will say we were definitely in the minority -- the others in the dining room that night seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. If only we were them...... or that blind.....)

For those who haven't been to Bubba's, here's the lowdown: It's a bustling restaurant set on a riverfront -- and the vibe is that it's a humble riverfront seafood shack. (To be honest, the decor is very reminiscent of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company stores, albeit a little more low rent in design and without the Forrest Gump references). It's a loud place, very boisterous -- and seems designed purposefully so. The dining room comes filled with Formica tables, linoleum floors, a jumping country music soundtrack and wooden walls. The menu is filled primarily with locally caught seafood, like shrimp, crabs, oysters and the lot. As mentioned earlier, nearly all the dishes are prepared in some sort of classic southern manner -- which means it's all pretty much sticks to your ribs fare, and given that it's a Paula Deen place, most of it is either deep fried or topped with mounds of cheese. This is not a place for anyone on a diet or who is lactose intolerant -- or for anyone who actually wants to taste his or her seafood straight-up. (I suppose the grilled wild shrimp we ordered were supposed to do that, but they just missed the mark and felt undercooked both in terms of temperature and flavor. Cheese might have helped here, I guess.)

The bathrooms are equally disappointing, and my first impression of them, after stepping in, was that they were in the process of being scoped out for repairs. An off-putting, chip-filled brown tile covers the lower walls, with non-matching blue drywall covering the upper halves. The sink vanity is colored sharp yellow, with two bare-bones round mirrors nailed into the wall over each sink. Sinks, urinals and toilets are your standard white and show obvious signs of wear and tear, as well as a few visible pipe leaks. Water, trash and towels littered the floor, and a sharp smell of urine stung the air (most likely because someone didn't bother to "hit the mark" when going).

Worse still, there was no soap available to clean your hands with, just a Purell dispenser. So that meant that both employees who were handling raw seafood and customers who were eating this raw seafood had to rely on a few dribbles of Purell to clean their hands with, nothing more -- which, as anyone will tell you, is not acceptable. Nothing gets the stink of peeled shrimp out of your hands better than Purell, right? What are they thinking!?!?!!?

Also worth noting: There was no paper towel holder (to compensate, the management placed a roll of towels on the vanity counter, which was all wet to begin with, so the roll of towels was essentially soaked and useless) and no hand dryer available (a sign taped to it indicated it was broken).

Marks out of 10:

2. Just a horrible overall experience.

Comments to the Management:

Where to begin? First, perhaps the place should be cleaned more than once a day, which is the impression I got from it. We arrived for an early seating and the restrooms were already torn to pieces.

Second, how about getting some matching colors and some working components? A few air fresheners -- and some soap, of course -- would be great as well.

What's all the more disappointing is that this is a nationally recognized restaurant that gets a lot of publicity -- Paula Deen films her Paula's Party show here! You expect it to be in tip top shape and set to impress, but it isn't. It's a mess through and through! And if the bathrooms aren't in full working order, or even somewhat clean, then you have to start wondering what else isn't in tip top shape?

Krappy Facilities at Kappy's

Kappy's Submarine Sandwiches
501 N Orlando Ave
Maitland, FL USA 32751

Where is it?

The bathrooms are around the back corner (south end) of the building. Having said that, the trip needed to get there isn't as easy as you might think. It requires courage -- and perhaps some manner of keeping those mind-over-bodily-function urges under control.

Walk along a rather dilapidated concrete walk path, around the structure, during which you'll see the environment around you growing increasingly darker and less civilized. Once there, you'll see a pair of red doors, each one looking like something you'd find in a haunted house movie. As in those movies, your better judgment tells you not to enter, but -- as is not always the case in this line of work -- your body tells you differently. In this case, listen to your better judgment.

What's it like?

This diner/sandwich stand in Maitland (about 15 minutes north of Orlando's city center) may be one of the most modest eateries in Central Florida. The interior consists mostly of a grill and food storage area, with just a small counter and a handful of stools set aside for customers. Outside, in the parking lot houses about five or so worn down picnic tables, which tackle the seating surplus when the inside gets full (which is often, believe it or not).

Menu-wise, the options are limited. Steak sandwiches, hamburgers, fries, etc. They're all greasy, and bad for you, but the food is also surprisingly tasty -- some of the best sandwich stand food in the area, if you ask me. Probably only the Fillin' Station rivals its greasy goodness. It's unpretentious, somewhat old-fashion, and very affordable -- and the fact that it tastes great (and isn't less filling) makes it all the more impressive.

I wish I could say the same about the bathrooms. The men's room was this little tiny closet, set behind an ominous red door. Lighting is poor outside, worsening my impressions. I should say that my visit was in the evening of a cooler fall day. I recommend that if you do visit, and feel you might have to use the facilities, go during the day and during the cooler months of the year. At least that way you'll see fewer bugs and, of the bugs that are there, you can see what might jump out at you. I have the feeling that in the summer the place is overrun with cockroaches and other nasty creatures.

Inside, you'll find little more than a worn down toilet, a sink and a towel dispenser hanging over the sink. It's so small, there's barely any room for yourself. Grime and wear and tear can be seen everywhere, especially on the faucet (where I chose not to touch -- thank heavens for the bottle of Purell in my car.) The walls are nothing more than white-painted concrete block. The floors are dark-painted slab. Clearly not a lot of thought was put into the decor of this joint.

Some interesting highlights: The lighting here was somewhat bright when I first stepped inside, but the longer I stayed, the dimmer it became, and for a moment I wondered -- if I had to make a longer pit stop -- would I eventually end up in the dark and left at the mercies of whatever lurked in that little hole once the light was gone? (This is the stuff of nightmares, really.)

Also, the soap comes in an old ketchup squeeze bottle -- something I've never seen before. Granted, the ketchup bottle looked a bit on the worn down end, so I didn't test out its flow capacity, if you will. Still, you know the thing gets used because the state demands all restaurant employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom. All I can say to that is: Poor, poor employees.

Marks out of 10:

2. Very scary.

Comments to the Management:

The food is wonderful, but the place is nearing 40 years in age and it looks like it still has most of its original fixtures and decor. Perhaps time for a spruce up, no? Not only will the customers appreciate it, but so would your employees.