Shadyside Market District

Grade: B

My apologies for the extended absence. It seems I am doomed to post with great regularity for six months, only to go into hibernation for the next six. I will try to post at least once a week, or possibly more if my schedule allows me to visit multiple new restrooms in a week.

For those of you who were not aware, we have moved our headquarters back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While a great deal of the posts going forward will be for establishments located in Pittsburgh, we as always welcome guest restroom reviews from anywhere in the world. We are also interested in receiving reviews of women's rooms, if you are so inclined. Please leave a comment, visit our Facebook page, tweet at us, or e-mail placestodobusiness@gmail.com if you are interested in writing for us.

But on to the Shadyside Market District men's room. This is a solid public restroom, with automatic flushing urinals and toilets and some nice decorative details (see: wall paint, fake potted plant, above-average floor and wall tiles). The hand dryer is a little weak, but I appreciate that both paper towels and a hand dryer are offered.

My one major qualm with this men's room is its proximity to the front end/registers. The restroom is so close, and is accessed through an open corridor - as opposed to a door - so the noise from the front end is quite loud. This really diminishes the feeling of privacy and solitude that a great restroom offers.

Wegmans, Fairmount

3577 West Genesee Street, Syracuse, NY 13219-2002
Grade: B+

But seriously, I really was at Wegmans last night. The Farimount location has an extremely nice men's room that is loaded with convenient features, but upon my viewing it simply was nowhere near as clean as it should have been.

I'll start with the good. The restroom's decor is very calming, with earth-toned floor and wall tiles and modern, under-the-mirror lighting for the sinks.

The urinals, toilet and faucets are all automatic, and the paper towel dispensers offer a hands-free design (though each had to be cranked once to produce a new sheet while I was there). The toilet's auto-flushing mechanism proved to be very sensitive, as it flushed while I was crouched in front of the toilet studying the toilet seat cleaner (more on this below).

The hand dryer is standard and adequate, and both soap and hand sanitizer dispenser are included beside the sinks.

Mounted beneath the sink is a pull-down child step, so that children may reach the basins and wash their hands on their own. This is a nice touch that undoubtedly gives kids a sense of independence and accomplishment.

Possibly the most interesting feature of this restroom -- and certainly a feature I have never seen in any other facilities -- is the toilet seat cleaner. This is a dispenser mounted beside the toilet that emits a sanitization liquid so that one might clean the toilet seat off before sitting on it. The illustrated instructions show that you should use a square of toilet paper to collect the liquid and wipe the seat down. This is a nice thought, as employees obviously cannot get in to clean the toilets every single time they are used.

Despite all of these flourishes, though, the restroom stilled appeared untidy. Much as with the Sheetz I reviewed a few weeks ago, the facilities smelled pleasantly of cleaning solution, the floors were still drying from being mopped and a "wet floor" sign was prominently displayed, but whoever had done the mopping had clearly not taken the time to tend to the excess water/used paper towels on the countertop or the overflowing garbage bin. Also, a package of extra toilet paper rolls lay only partially beneath the sink, which only added to the cluttered feel. It is always a good thing to have refills available, but one would think that they would have a storage closet in which to keep such items, and that the employees should be checking the restroom frequently enough to refill toilet paper when it gets low, thus eliminating the need to have a package just lying about like this.

Price Chopper

2515 Erie Blvd. East, Syracuse, NY 13224
Grade: D+


I am sort of intrigued by the concept of grocery store restrooms. While they are a necessity, use of the facilities is extremely limited during the shopping experience. You cannot, obviously, bring store merchandise into the restroom. Unless you have someone with whom you can leave your cart, you either have to do your business before shopping or risk leaving your cart and merchandise unattended. As a result of these complications, I don't think I have ever actually used a grocery store's men's room.

These restrooms are so off of my radar that I didn't even really know where to look for this one. I walked around the store like a real creep, glancing down hallways and nearly wandering into several kitchens and storage rooms in the process. It turned out that the restroom was immediately to the right of the store's entrance, while I had walked left around the entire perimeter of the floor.

Anyway. The Price Chopper men's room seems to be trying to pass itself off as somewhat fancier than it is, using decorative wall tiles and bizarre paisley patterned toilet paper dispensers as a flimsy mask for astounding averageness. While the restroom is reasonably clean, the amount of graffiti on the stalls (only one stall pictured below, but the other is covered as well) drops it at least half a letter grade. The urinal does not flush very well and the paper towel dispenser hangs crooked on the wall. The wrinkled, water-stained, printer paper "Clean Team" sign comes off as terribly insincere.