At some point in our recent history, someone thought to himself, “I should take a picture of myself in the bathroom. And then I should post it to social media.”
Soon after, a restaurant owner then surely thought, “For some reason, people are posting pictures of themselves in the bathroom on social media. I should turn my restaurant’s bathroom into the spot for bathroom selfies.”
And thus, the Instagram-worthy restaurant bathroom trend was born. Heck, these days the WC is often the most interesting part of the whole place. From quirky wallpaper to snazzy tile to amusing art installations, restaurants have been making the restrooms the best rooms.
Power powder rooms
The shared bathrooms inside the newly opened LeRoux and Cho77 were anything but afterthoughts. Covered with blue, hand-cut Italian tile and floral wallpaper and accented with copper details, the two unisex restrooms, by local design firm Semple Brown, are sure to be popping up on Instagram feeds all over town.
“Once we got in the LeRoux space and walked into the restrooms, we were blown away by how beautiful they were,” said Savanna Ronco, marketing and events coordinator for ChoLon Restaurant Concepts, which operates the restaurants.
The team was so pleased with the bathrooms, Ronco said, that they used pictures of the tile and wallpaper in their social media teasers for LeRoux’s opening.
“Sometimes I’ll go in (a restaurant’s restroom) just to freshen up or look in the mirror even if I don’t have to go. I want to see what the restroom looks like!” Ronco said.
When discussing well-appointed restaurant loos with friends, Osteria Marco kept coming up. Having opened in 2007 (as in, three years before Instagram was born), the Larimer Square restaurant was ahead of the trend.
Jacqueline Bonanno, creative director and co-owner of Bonanno Concepts, which runs Osteria Marco, believes that bathrooms are the one place in the restaurant where you can have a little extra fun with the style. When designing restaurants, she likes to do something unexpected and whimsical in the restrooms, and that usually involves bold wallpaper.
Osteria Marco’s is a vivid green, spread-eagle frog design. It’s very eye-catching, which is why it’s such an Insta sensation. It’s also a magnet for vandals who choose to draw, let’s just say, anatomically correct frogs onto the paper. Bonanno said they’ve had to replace the wallpaper several times over the years because of all the drawings. They even had to remove it completely from the men’s bathroom because of the frequent frog defacers.
Another pre-Instagram, pre-selfie age bathroom of note is inside Beatrice & Woodsley. This is the first restaurant bathroom that I remember hearing about. “You have to see the bathroom!” friends insisted. The riddle of a sink involves hanging cord faucets to turn the water on and off and — look up! — a toilet paper art installation on the ceiling.
Other standout lavatories that make visiting the washroom a must (even when you don’t need to) include the wallpapered Bar Fausto and Ash’Kara; sleekly tiled Hop Alley; cookbook page-covered Root Down; meter-stick-paneled Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox; the sunglass-wearing duck at Rioja; and the eon signs that light up 54Thirty and Call.
The Instagram effect
As embarrassing as it is to even type the words, bathroom selfies are a thing. On Instagram, #bathroomselfie has 1.5 million posts and counting. I don’t know what this says about our culture in 2019, but I certainly hope this little stat finds its way into history books one day.
Denver Instagrammer Fork Social Lab (aka Christine Vazquez) has an obsession with food and design, so it’s no surprise that restaurant bathrooms — and restaurant bathroom selfies — make their way onto her feed.
“I think a restaurant’s bathroom tells you so much about them,” Vazquez said. “Their care and thoughtfulness. From a design standpoint, I expect the restaurant’s common areas to be well-designed, but when their bathroom also is, it’s like a special treat, and (it) helps make that part of the experience a pleasure. Bad restroom design just leaves a bad taste — pun intended. It shows carelessness and lack of consideration for guests that extends beyond the issue of aesthetics.”
That’s all well and good, but why has it become a thing to take pictures of ourselves in said bathrooms? Is there power in taking what used to be the most private room in a home or building and then sharing it with the world? Are we trying to send a message about ourselves and our lifestyles? Or do we just think we look super cute when we’re dressed up for dinner?
Vazquez brings it back to the restaurant design and wanting to share it with other people.
“The bathroom selfie has a special appeal because there’s a mirror — sometimes full-length — and you can capture the surrounding design, which most often is found in a truly great floor, sometimes fabulous wallpaper, and sometimes, like in the case of Hop Alley, incredible wall tiling,” Vazquez said.
Facilitating the facilities
It’s not always visual, though. The now-defunct Black Eye Coffee in Capitol Hill used to play audio books on loop in the restrooms. Everything from Edgar Allen Poe to Keith Richards’s autobiography entertained customers while they did their business.
Of course, Black Eye also had a neon bathroom installation because, come on, the folks there know their audience likes a good visual. (Embarrassing disclosure: Its “Forever is composed of nows” glowing sign was my third-ever Instagram post. So, yeah, glass houses and such.)
More cool stuff!: Denver’s most Instagrammable neon art and where to find it
More restaurants are also considering their guests’ needs and putting out mints, tampons, Advil and even condoms — at Beckon, if you’re wondering where to stock up — in the facilities. These extras are just another way that hospitality-focused eateries can take care of their guests, going the extra mile for diners who have to go.
The memorable restaurant bathroom trend and its consort, the bathroom selfie, are most certainly a reflection of our current social climate. Restaurants are telling more of their stories via WC design, and we’re inserting ourselves into those stories, creating lasting images out of our mirror images. Whether you interpret that as narcissism or a willingness to connect and share is up to you.
We know that Denver has some of the coolest bathrooms around, and we couldn’t include them all. Do you have a favorite spot not included in this story? Leave them in the comments below.
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