Rainforest Coffee Company Bathroom Packed with Beer Ads, Not Coffee Ads

Rainforest Coffee Company
526 S Hunt Club Blvd
Apopka, FL USA

Where is it?

This is another long and thin interior, like the recently reviewed Pannullo's, only unlike that place you have a few more obstacles to cross in order to reach the bathroom.

From the front entrance, head to the back of the place, crossing a wine bar on your left and then a coffee bar on your right (which also has a window cooler for cakes and such), as well as a small assortment of couches and cafe tables taking up the spaces in between.

At the back wall, you'll see a door leading to a small kitchen on the far right and a small hallway leading to the rear of the establishment in the dead center of the back wall. The bathrooms are down that hallway.

What's it like?

This is a little neighborhood coffee house and wine bar located just north of Altamonte Springs, in the northern regions of the Orlando area. The place itself looks and feels similar to many of its coffee house brethren, in that the decor is homey yet funky and the spaces are meant for lounging and sipping beer, coffee or wine and for whiling away a few hours. Think of Bongo Java in Nashville, only without the crazy comic-book-inspired drawings. Or Huffkins in Witney, England.

Though having said that it's homey-er in here than those places -- while most coffee house chains (Starbucks, Barnie's, etc.) make their dining rooms hip hangouts with lots of polished decor, this one has a more homespun air to the arrangement. It's hip but earthy, if you will. Part of that's from wear and tear, but part's also from it being independently decorated.

The coffee is decent and the wine and beer selection (bottles only) are better than expected. The food is okay, though one of the two cakes I sampled tasted like it'd been in a cooler well past its due date. I've heard the sandwiches are good, but I didn't try them.

Judging from my visit, I will say the clientele is a tad sketchy and rough around the edges, which I think is perhaps due in part that the location of the store is a bit out of the way for most semi-sophisticated coffee drinkers or wine drinkers to visit. On my stop, a particular regular sitting at the wine bar decided to start up a rather volatile and long-winded drunken tirade aimed at nearly all the other customers there, the acoustic duo playing on a stage setup by the entrance hall to the bathrooms (the duo were friends of mine) and, what seemed, herself. Really, it was a bloody mess -- who thought boozers hung out and drank freely at coffee houses? Not I, until I visited here.

Anyway, when we asked the owner if he would mind stepping in and quieting things, he said that she was a regular who usually garnered a $60 bar tab and as such he felt that he needed to cut her a little slack. I appreciate the sentiment, considering today's economic woes, but at the same time you wonder if his other customers mattered much in comparison. I'm not so sure, to be honest, but I'll leave my speculations at that.

Anyway, the bathrooms don't extend the homespun hipness of the dining room. In fact, they feel more in line with what was found at Sharky's Shrimp Shack and the Long Point Cafe than anything else. One-baggers, single-chamber units, with the bare necessities and little else. Only it's not as polished as those.

It should be noted that the toilets here have many more beer ads than one might expect. In fact, I haven't seen so many beer ads in a bathroom since visiting the Pig and Whistle Pub in Sebastian, FL. Of course, this place isn't that extensive, but it's still more than what I would expect a coffee house to have. Clearly, this place is on some mailing lists!

Anyway, the place has just one toilet, one sink station and one urinal -- all white porcelain and all pretty standard in make and model (take the beer ads out and you probably couldn't tell the difference between this place and the toilet at World Market Sand Lake Road, for example). The floors are covered with that standard red-brick tile we've seen at countless other places, like Harris Teeter Raleigh and Fresh Market Orlando, among others. The walls are white drywall -- again, nothing special.

Everything was pretty clean, though the floor was dotted with lots of pieces of paper -- not sure if that was from some deteriorating beer ads or from the toilet paper or paper towels. Most likely the latter, since the towel dispenser was empty and instead of refilling it a nearly empty roll sat atop the sink for all to use (or make confetti from).

Elsewhere, there was some noticeable wear and tear in the seams behind the sink and the toilet -- and there was an mountable air freshener slipped into the area behind the door.

Marks out of 10:

5. Not terrible, but not great either. You could see the place going up or down in score on any given night, really.

Comments to the Management:

I don't mind the beer ads, but a more creative presentation might be better instead of just piling them on the back wall. And why not make the interior homey, like what's been done at Greens and Grille, or to a lesser degree, the Ravenous Pig? And it couldn't hurt to keep the paper towel dispenser stocked up so there isn't as much confetti on the floor.

Fuggedaboudit: Bathroom at Pannullo's Makes Offer You Can't Refuse

Pannullo's Italian Restaurant
216 S Park Ave
Winter Park, FL USA
www.pannullos.com

Where is it?

This is a pretty small, narrow place -- about as close to a authentically sized New York City restaurant as you will probably find in Orlando. Really, it's just a long, thin rectangle, with a thinner central area that makes room for a semi-open kitchen.

To find the bathroom, head through the outdoor seating area up front, straight past the hostess station, to the very rear of the place -- the back, left corner to be specific. Once there, head past the waitress station and look on your left -- the entrance to the bathrooms will be there.

What's it like?

This semi-upscale joint, located on swanky Park Avenue in Winter Park, is one of the city's more reliable spots for decent everyday Italian food. Think of it as a neighborhood pizzeria that's raised the quality of food a beyond the standard pizzeria fare.

Inside, it looks much like a Manhattan restaurant, with brick walls, dim lighting, and a somewhat crammed dining room that (in my opinion) packs in a few too many tables for its own good. But the food is good and well-priced and the service is commendable. The pizza baked here is some of the best in the city (at least in my top 5) and the pasta dishes (including a wonderful ravioli terracina -- ravioli stuffed with mushroom and spinach) and sandwiches (a terrific meatball Parmesan sub) are baked on fresh bread and are definitely a cut above from the standard sub shop or chain pizza house.

The crowd here ranges from regulars and families to see-and-be-seen types (it is Park Avenue) and college kids. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area. If only the dining room were a little roomier.....

The bathrooms poke a lot of fun at the criminal end of the Italian-American persona, as the green-painted walls are covered with the names of various gangsters and characters (and, in one case, Donnie Brasco, who was an undercover cop masquerading as a gangster, but who wants to quibble with specifics, considering the subject matter, right?).

As such, as you peruse the walls here, you see names like "Sonnie the Bull," "Moe Greene" (from the Godfather), "Bugsy Seigel," and aforementioned "Donnie Brasco" and many more. It's a cute gimmick that will make any mob movie fan smile. (Coincidentally, the motif would pair nicely with a visit to the bathroom at NYPD Pizza in Downtown Orlando, since that bathroom has been designed on a classic NYC police station. As for who has a better pizza.... that's a debate best left to another setting.)

The facilities themselves, like the dining room, are a little tight-fitting. Not as tight as Club Quarters Philadelphia or at Petro Palace lobby or the SkyBar in St. Petersburg, Russia, but still a bit too tight for it's own good, especially if there is more than one person inside at a time.

The layout, like the dining room, is that of a long, thin rectangle. Upon entering, you'll see a sink station across from you, in the back corner. It's got a porcelain vanity, with a funky-framed mirror overhead and a cabinet underneath. Off-white tile covers the area immediately around the sink -- sort of like a splash-proof zone (the designers at the Lotus Blossom Cafe in Disney's EPCOT might want take note of the effectiveness of this setup). Above that, as with the rest of the upper walls of the place, are the painted green walls with the names of the mobsters on it.

In the front is an old-fashioned urinal that stretches to the floor -- combined with the tile work (which mixes straight block tiles with a wavy-lined pattern highlight), the place gives off the look and feel of an old-fashioned toilet chamber. Mind you, it's not as successful as, say, Montparnasse 1900 in Paris or Philadelphia's Davio's, but certainly more than Columbia Restaurant Celebration, which promised an old-fashioned bathroom atmosphere but didn't deliver at all.

The toilet stall is in the middle of the place, kind of pushed in between the sink and urinal. As said, it's pretty tight in here.

It's also a bit noisy, since the entrance is set right across from the main waitress station, which is behind the bar against the back wall and the drink filling station. To get here, you will probably have to dodge a few waiters.

It's clean for the most part, however. I didn't spot any spilled water or paper, but I did find a napkin left behind on the sink station. Considering the charm of the place, I said, "Fuggedaboudit."

Marks out of 10:

7. A fun place, but also a bit too crammed and noisy. Almost an 8, but I just couldn't do it.

Comments to the Management:

Seeing that you probably can't make it any bigger, perhaps add some music in here, to lessen the noise factor. Otherwise, kudos on the clever design.

Amway Arena Bathroom Really Just a Cave with Lots of Urinals

Amway Arena
600 W Amelia St
Orlando, FL USA
www.orlandovenues.net

Where is it?

This bathroom reviewed here is located near the entrance to the seats in sections 103-104 and 203-204.

So to get there, find that area via the signs pointing to them, look across the hall from them -- you'll see a large tiled divider wall (almost monolithic in size, really). Go behind that wall and you'll come across the bathrooms.

What's it like?

Orlando's main arena, home to the Orlando Magic and big concert draws, this large stadium seats around 17,000 for most basketball games and concerts. It's a pleasant enough place to enjoy such an event, though the echoes and acoustics can be a bit of a strain -- as much sound seems to get stuck in its many upper corners.

Like most arenas, it has a number of attractions, from various gift stalls selling T-shirts and other wares, to an assortment of food vendors, offering an array of fast food and such. Seats are of the plastic fold-down variety -- not too comfortable, but not as bad as other venues I've been to.

The bathrooms here are enormous, multi-person and cavernous. In fact, walking in one it really looks just like a being in a cave -- only this cave is lined with urinals along its perimeter.

And it's not as dank as the cave-like bathroom at at Pulkovo International Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia, but that's only because it's much larger than that. Still, this is very much a cave and nothing else.

Essentially, the facilities here consist of one long room. A barrage of sinks (all white porcelain, with single mirrors over them) covering both sides of the walls greets you once you step inside. Beyond that is a long single room that has dozens of urinals fixed to its left and back wall and a long row of toilet stalls along the right wall.

The urinals have no dividers between them, and black metal makes up the stall divider walls. Various posters of upcoming events hang above the urinals -- which is better than nothing, I guess. The upper walls are covered in beige tile, the lower walls with a drab gray tile. That same colored gray tile (albeit smaller) covers the floors, which is also dotted with small black tiles for highlights -- similar to what was seen at Theo's Kitchen, only on a much larger scale.

What's amusing here is that a lot of the fixtures are dated. The sink faucets, for example, are the old-fashioned turn-on variety you used to see predominantly several years back. I haven't seen faucets this antiquated since visiting the Delta Crown Room in the JFK International terminal.

Also, this is the only place I've ever seen advertisement stickers placed around the piping of the toilets -- a very strange place to place an ad, I think, since you can never really see the entire ad. So far, I've seen business cards and fliers placed in the bathroom (like at that horrid CVS Pharmacy in Savannah, GA) and I've seen printed pieces of paper taped to specific areas of the bathroom (like at the scary Goyan Gip Korean Restaurant), but I never have seen stickers wrapped around piping. First time for everything, I guess.

That aside, the place was pretty clean as a whole -- though I visited during the opening minutes of a basketball game, so few had made their way to the bathroom by then. I've made other visits while attending other events and the bathroom was far messier then. For this one, I found some trash on the floor, some spilled water and pee and some foul odors in the air, but nothing too horrible. (It's been worse on subsequent visits.)

Still, outside of the sheer size of this cave, there isn't much that's memorable here. Utilitarian at best, and best experienced early on in the game than later as it gets pretty crowded during halftime and on the way out.

Marks out of 10:

6. Really a 5, but that one visit, where I was the only person in there, really added to the experience.

Comments to the Management:

Update the fixtures and keep it cleaner when the place is being swamped -- both things I'm sure you already know, though.

Playful NYPD Pizzeria Bathroom Looks Like NYC Police Station Office -- Very Amusing

NYPD Pizzeria
Downtown Orlando
171 S. Orange Ave.
(inside the Plaza Building)
Orlando, FL USA
www.nypdpizzeria.com

Where is it?

This is a mid-sized pizzeria, square in shape. After entering, you find yourself in the back of the dining room. The kitchen, open to the dining room, sits in the far right corner, taking up approximately 1/3 of the space there.

To reach the bathroom, walk to the opposite corner of the entrance. Once there, you'll see a door marked restrooms -- it's a one-bagger that serves both men and women, and as the sign states it's for customers only.

What's it like?

Downtown Orlando is a neighborhood in flux, and place with perhaps too many personalities. The area serves as the city's business district, as well as an after-hours entertainment complex filled with various nightclubs and other hip hangouts. The housing boom of the early 2000's left the area with a number of overpriced condo buildings, many of which are still unfinished because of the current economic downturn of the city (and the country), and as such several of the neighborhood's once thriving streets and happening spots are now empty or subdued. There's still a lot to do here, mind you, but it's also a bit drab in ways as well.

The dining in the area has always been a little hit or miss, and though Downtown Orlando has seen a resurgence of decent places in the last few years, most people with a taste for good food opt for driving north or south for a few minutes for the chance at hitting something better.

This pizza chain, which originated in Orlando and has spread to other parts of the country in recent years, has been a downtown staple for more than a decade. Often, nightclubbers looking to crave some late-night munchies stop by for a slice or two before heading home for the night. The restaurant itself used to be located on Orange Avenue, downtown Orlando's main drag, but a few years back, as the neighborhood began to over-develop, it moved into its current location, in the Plaza office building (across the way, literally, from Bento Cafe), where it has become a happening lunch spot for the professionals in the area.

The pizza here is, as the name suggests, inspired by New York-style pizza. It has a thin, foldable crust, is baked crisp, has a good sauce and fresh toppings -- it's top notch pie in a city that has a lot of pizza places but few that are of note. It also offers handful of other pizzeria specials, like hoagies, pastas, salads and such. For a pizzeria, the quality is decent -- if this were in my neighborhood, I would visit regularly.

The decor looks inspired by various sports bars in the area, with mounted flat screens and various posters advertising happy hour specials and such. Service is friendly and down-to-earth and prices are reasonable.

The bathroom is a fun experience that pokes much fun at New York's tough-guy police ideal. This is a one-room chamber for both men and women. It's about eight feet by eight feet in area, with the white porcelain toilet in the back right corner, the white porcelain sink station in the front right corner and a urinal on the opposite wall.

The decor here has been set to look like an NYC police station office. The mirror has height markings, a sign along the top railing reads "Captain's Office" and there's a poster-sized mugshot of Frank Sinatra himself in the back left corner (it's what you stare at while you're on the pot -- which I guess lets you let the Chairman of the Board what you really think of his Duets albums).

While it has been made to look grungy and of the French Connection era, it's anything but. Walls are covered in brick pattern wallpaper, floors are black linoleum -- everything is spotless.

The main door, because it opens out into the main dining room, at times feels a little too flimsy of a barrier between you and the rest of the place (especially if they're restocking plates, which happens right outside and proves downright invasive) but outside of that, it's a fine place for a pit stop.

Marks out of 10:

8.

Comments to the Management:

A fun place. Only suggest would be to make the door a little heavier or to provide a stronger sense of privacy for the person inside (through music or other means).

Too Much Style Keeps J. Alexander's Toilet From Perfection

J. Alexander's
7335 W Sand Lake Rd
Orlando, FL USA
www.jalexanders.com

Where is it?

On the exact opposite end of the place from the entrance.

So to get there, you enter, cross the large dining room, passing the semi-open kitchen on the far left wall and the glass-walled wine room on the far right.

Once you reach the very back corner, you'll see a waiter station on your left (this is where the dishes coming fresh out the kitchen get their last bit of dressing for table presentation). Veer right then, walking backward even further, until you see a small cutout in the hall, very dimly lit. Once there, you'll see some ornate wooden doors, one leading to the men's room, one to the women's.

What's it like?

Style is definitely the focus at this upper-class semi-class gourmet chain. The dining room is dimly lit and filled with dark woods, dark carpet, bits of modernist art, sleek metal highlights and a hip vibe. Tables are wide and offer plenty of elbow room, and sitting here reminded me some of the warmth one feels while sitting in a ski lodge's main room (you know, with the fireplace) -- yes, it that's cozy -- only it's not as common feeling as that. Rather's it's like a sophisticated fireplace den. Pretty nice.

The menu works a similar charm, albeit at times it works a bit too hard to achieve that effect. Both the in-house smoked salmon appetizer and house chili (the soup of the day on my visit) proved to be stellar starters -- very good versions of these traditional dishes. Also impressive-looking were the onion rings, which came in a foot-tall tower; sadly, I didn't get to try those.

Sandwiches were good but at times got a little too complicated for their own good. The ahi tuna burger, for example, made a strong first impression, with its Asian marinade and toppings of pickled cabbage and carrot, among other things, but those toppings and sauces eventually gave way to pretty bland fish. The same could be said of the Hyde Park, essentially a club sandwich; it started strong (with its freshly baked bread and abundance of toppings) but again ended up revealing some bland basics.

Mains were not sampled because we were there for lunch, though I will say the house mac and cheese was very good, though entirely too rich for any one person to eat -- and if one person can eat that as a side dish, then that person needs to see his/her cardiologist soon after, since the thing was more gooey cheese than anything else in it; very good but very wrong, if you catch my drift.

Prices are medium to high, but then again this is what one would call an affordable fine dining restaurant. You can come in shorts and a T-shirt but you can also come for special occasions.

What's a real shame here is that for all the work put forth in the food, decor and service (which is also very good, with waiters hitting you from all angles at times), none of it feels very memorable. Once I was out the door, I had a hard time remembering what I'd eaten. It's all style, if you think about it, and not much substance past the immediate. Some might make the case that this is OK with them, since not all meals need to create memories, but I sense that the place is trying to reach beyond that basic connection with its customers, only that it was coming up short.

The bathrooms, of course, are very similarly minded to that. They offer plenty of sleek design touches and a few things that make you pause and smile, but at the same time they are all style and little else. And in the case of the men's room, some of that style gets in the way of practicality and proves detrimental.

This is a small, multi-person chamber. Once inside, you'll see a tightly packed multi-station sink station to your immediate left. In the back right corner are two toilet stalls, and across from them are two urinals.

The toilet stalls are in fixed-wall chambers (not the standard separator-wall-created stalls), with floor-to-ceiling doors -- very similar in spirit, but much smaller in scale, to what was seen at the wonderful Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino bathrooms. Only, of course, this place has more contemporary design on the door, whereas that place has art nouveau doors.

The toilets are white porcelain and the chambers are very private, though at the same time they are a bit dark -- reminiscent of what was seen at the stalls of the at the Musee de l'Orangie in Paris.

The urinals, also white porcelain, aren't anything special -- a standard area for those, with a nice dark wood divider between the two.

The sink is the highlight of the place. It's a trough sink made of stainless steel, with two faucets in place but only with enough room for one person to stand there comfortably. Standalone metallic soap dispenser sit alongside, with containers for heavy-duty paper towels in the corners. A large single-pane stretch mirror, which accentuates the metallic sheen on the vanity all the more, hangs behind it all.

But as said it's a tight fit here, almost uncomfortably so, and it gets even tighter when you're washing your hands there and the door opens and someone practically runs into you because the door is situated too closely to the sink.

Also, while the faucets are automatic, their progression of flow is too far back on the sink trough. As we saw in the Wynn Las Vegas bathrooms, which have set the standard for trough-styled sinks, the water sprays down against the back end of the trough, which in turn sprays waters everywhere. Something this clean-looking needs to be clean on all accounts, and all that spilled water ruins the facade. Really, if you extend the faucet out from so the water hits the back of the trough, this problem can be solved easily.

Marks out of 10:

8.

Comments to the Management:

Stylish, sleek and sophisticated, but also a bit clumsy in parts. Not sure if you can add more space to the sink area (perhaps fitting it into another part of the bathroom, like to the right of the urinals) but something needs to be done to make it feel less tight-fitting. Even if you're alone there, it's tight. Also, extend those faucets out so the splash from them is lessened.