While I was waiting to hear if I was approved for my Visa, and was between jobs, I had a fabulous idea. This brilliant idea was born from wandering around the city and finding bathrooms the hard way. Stumbling in and out of stores, embarrassed to ask, and really having to go, I found good public bathrooms, that were not common knowledge to a newcomer.
This was how the idea of the New York bathroom book emerged. A guide, possibly with a cute “seat cover” on it (?) to camouflage it, to the best bathrooms in the city. Everyone I shared it with, loved the idea, and contributed their best ideas and encouragement.
I was obviously quite hush hush about it, I mean, what if it got out and someone else beat me to it? That would suck. I had to get to work immediately, the clock was ticking.
Union Square was covered, Barnes and Noble, Filenes, DSW and Whole Foods, not to mention Starbucks. Columbus Circle has the Time Warner Center, with not only great bathrooms, but amazing Dyson hand dryers to boot.
On Dafna's advice, who said there must be something out there like it, I did an internet search of bathroom databases and searched Borders and Barnes and Noble for existing guides and found that there was nothing that could compete with “Gotta Go- the New York bathroom guide”.
I realized that this venture would be HUGE, and that New York was only the beginning, I would be flown all over the world for bathroom books in Venice, London, Laos, Israel- EVERYWHERE! A goldmine and a great opportunity to travel!
SOHO seemed like a great place to start, why not, gotta start somewhere, and every tourist has to go to SOHO.
Day one, I met Aliza for breakfast at Balthazar, and started to pound the pavement.
SOHO presented a bit of a problem, because the whole place is a distraction. Too many cute shops, cafes and sales. I did find some good loos, the best being at a bathroom accessory store, with state of the art facilities. The worst was at Café Duke, where I USED to eat. I spent 40 minutes in a Swedish bed store, being shown the benefits of an all natural, $10,000 bed, by a very bored and sweet Swede. I checked out hotties at John Varvatos, played cool at the SOHO Grand, and pretended to be religious at the Tenth Church of Christ Science, all in the name of research. Bloomingdales and Crate and Barrel at Broadway and Houston are the best no hassle go-to’s, but I am not the first to discover that.
After two days covering SOHO, I had to make a geographical plan, I decided to start at the tip of the island and work my way up. I found a great map of the city, created a checklist, with cleanliness, handicapped access, towels, number of stalls, smell, etc.
I hit the financial district, zig-zagging through every street, no bathroom left unexamined. I took damning photos, cracked up when I came to the corner of Water and John, and even found a decent slice of pizza (not IN a bathroom- gross).
I spent a bunch of time on the phone with my Mom, who kept my sagging spirits up, as I dragged my ass from can to can-can.
Talking to a friend later that day, and telling him in strict confidence about my future bathroom dynasty, he informed me that there was already a book that listed all the bathrooms in Manhattan, called “Where to Go” by Vicki Rovere. Huh? I promptly went home, did a search, and found out he was right, it does exist (not that you can actually find it anywhere). This insane woman walked all the way up and down every street of Manhattan finding every available bathroom.
I was and AM so grateful to Miss Vicki, because frankly, and not surprising to most, it’s depressing going in and out of bathrooms all day and a smarter person would have realized that sooner. Sometimes, I get so excited by the marketing of an idea, that I don’t think about whether I actually want to do it or not. A case in point, is when I tried to rope my friend Leigh into doing laundry for film crews, because I saw a need, and like the name Laundro-babes. I thought we would make cute Laundro-babe's t-shirts with our silhouettes, and stick chipper notes and fortunes in people's jean pockets. I didn't consider that it would mean that I would be doing stranger's laundry all day, every day, probably not a good idea since I avoid my own laundry, until I have run out of socks and underwear.
p.s. if you are looking for a good bathroom in the financial district there is a really nice Starbucks, with excellent facilities on the corner of Pearl and Hanover, but really you shouldn’t be in the financial district unless you work there, and if you work there, then you probably have a bathroom at your office, and if you don’t, you should consider finding a new job, soon.
