How many stars would you give that baño?

Published September 2, 2023

I took my daughter to a gourmet popcorn store the other night. It’s nice and well-decorated but very small, with just two tiny tables inside. It’s the kind of place where most people order their fancy popcorn to go (our favorite is “Cookie Monster” – it’s blue and has actual cookies and M&M-type candies made to look like googly eyes!), but my daughter couldn’t wait that long. She had to have some of that popcorn right then and there.

My problem was that I needed to pee. Bad. Actually, I often have to pee pretty badly, which means if I’ve gone to an establishment with a bathroom, I’ve probably used it.

This was hardly a sit-down restaurant, so I don’t think the bathroom was really considered for client-use when they moved in. The tiny space was stocked with cleaning supplies, and it was so small that my knees knocked against the sliding door in front of me when I sat down (try getting that image out of your head!).

But I was grateful that they’d let me use it, and for the fact that there was both toilet paper and soap. There were paper towels for hand-drying too, a bonus! I smiled to myself and remembered an old friend’s silly idea, born of a veritable smorgasbord of bathroom experiences in Mexico: a bathroom star-rating system.

Read more […]