The Loft, Regent Square

Grade: A-

Not bad. Not bad at all. Decorative tile, auto-flushing toilet, great water temperature at the sink, beautiful lighting. The one problem - and it's a big one - is that the lock on the door was broken. That's fine for the urinal, but it's hard to use the toilet in a one-y with a non-locking door.

Emiliano's Mexican Restaurant & Bar, South Side

Grade: C-

Superficial decorative flourishes disguise an otherwise pedestrian - even somewhat rundown - restroom. One of the sinks has no water pressure to speak of, but the other is quite powerful and offers good water temperature. The wall paint has seen better days. The biggest issue is that the door takes a very long time to swing shut, leaving the back of the person at the urinal exposed to the restaurant for a significant amount of time.

Also: this is a (quite good) Mexican restaurant. What's with the Miller Lite poster?

Chatham University Art & Design Center 2nd Floor

Grade: B
This men's room was a pleasant surprise. Not that I should have expected something crummy - it is the arts building, after all. The restroom is private and, while not exactly glamorous, does sport some impressove faux-marble tile. There's a veritable army of cleaning supplies lined up on the window ledge, which is reflected in the facilities' cleanliness and pleasant (fruity/floral) smell. Nothing to luxurious - everything is manually operated - but nice all the same.

Chatham University JKM Library 3rd Floor

Grade: B

What this restroom lacks in amenities - it's about as basic as you get, with utilitarian tiles, one toilet, one urinal, one sink and manual everything - it makes up for in privacy. In all my time using this bathroom, I have come across one other person while inside. I don't know if it's the out-of-the-way location or the relatively low number of men on Chatham's campus. Either way, it's a great place to get away and relax.

Chatham University AFC Athletic Center

Grade: A

Entirely decent for a university campus restroom, especially in a fitness center. Clean, decorative tiles, foam soap, Rihanna's "Umbrella" blasting over the radio (this, of course, was coincidence). Only thing that could have pushed it into the realm of the truly elite would have been auto flushing/sinks/dispensers. Recommended, if you get a chance to check it out.

Most Wanted Fine Art

5015 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Grade: A

The restroom at Most Wanted Fine Art is kind of great. Despite the creepy descent into the building's basement -- the stairway looks like you're entering John Wayne Gacy's crawl space -- the restroom reveals itself to be cozy and pleasant. The facilities are clean and have a finished/unfinished feel that reflects the DIY nature of the gallery itself. The ceiling is extremely low, but a sign at the "door" helpfully reminds you of this. I place door in quotation marks because the door is actually just a zebra-print curtain hanging across the entrance. This adds to the charm and somehow does not make the restroom feel any less private, usually because the next person in line is standing watch for you at the top of the stairs. 

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.

Burgatory

936 Freeport Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15238
Grade: B+

If you don't mind waiting 2 hours on a weekend night, Burgatory is an excellent spot to partake in the eating of creative/customizable burgers (mine was organic beef on focaccia with chipotle sour cream and avocado... right??), washed down with a cucumber/rosemary gin and tonic or alcoholic milkshake.

If you don't mind navigating the establishment's inexplicably slick floor through a thick crowd of people, you may even have a chance to visit their perfectly decent men's room. The facilities are decorated in a somewhat industrial fashion, with gray floor and wall tiles and a light fixture that seems as though it is made of iron pipe fittings. The glass/stone mosaic liner tiles on the wall are a very nice touch, as is the above-counter sink. The only real drawbacks here are the lack of a hand dryer and a proper, built-in soap dispenser.

There is something I would like to mention, though it is somewhat embarrassing. This goes without saying, but the usual labeling system for men's and women's restrooms is "Men" and "Women." Certain establishments do tend to get cute with this sometimes (take the Rex Theater, which instead uses images of James Dean and Marilyn Monroe to differentiate between its bathrooms), but generally it is spelled out and pretty clear. With Burgatory, though, I almost walked straight into the women's room. Their restrooms are marked with "B" and "G," which in retrospect quite obviously means boys and girls. Myself, having just imbibed one of these aforementioned cucumber/rosemary gin and tonics, first saw the "G" and took it to mean "guys" (the women's room is at the end of the corridor and is the first that is immediately visible, with the men's room only coming into sight as you move further into the corridor).

Don't ask me why I thought this; wouldn't one restroom being labeled "guys" mean that the other would most likely be labeled "gals," hence leading to great confusion in their abbreviated forms? Still, I did not immediately find the "B" and "G" to be sufficient in pointing out which restroom was which, especially when the "G" was the first thing I saw.

Anyway. I'm not sure the point I'm trying to make here. Maybe some readers will see where I am coming from, and maybe others will think I am completely daft.

Also -- if the pictures below are somewhat underwhelming, it's only because my phone is horrible at taking photos in low-light situations. And to say that the restroom is a "low-light situation" is not a bad thing; it is a pleasant dimness.

Park Bruges

5801 Bryant St., Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Grade: A

While at first glance I found Park Bruges' men's room disappointingly plain, a closer inspection revealed beauty in the subtle details. The white-on-white color scheme is somewhat generic, but the restroom's decorative touches -- the light fixture above the mirror, the trim where the wall tile meets the painted wall, the modern urinal and top-mounted sink designs --  offer a classy appearance nonetheless. The facilities are clean and temperate, and the soft lighting (from the fixture above the mirror, as well as from recessed bulbs in the drop ceiling) lends a comfortable ambience. And then there is, of course, the Xlerator hand dryer, otherwise known as the greatest invention of all time.

The one slight drawback was the roll of toilet paper sitting on the back of the toilet, though that might have been a way to get around the somewhat frustrating toilet paper dispenser (detailed here).