Mmmmm…Claim Jumper. In my series of “wow-I-can’t-believe-I-waited-this-long-to-post-a-review” reviews, I visited Claim Jumper October 17, 2009. Yes folks, you read that right…I’m still…ahem…behind…

I honestly can’t remember what I had that night, but I can say without a doubt my bread choice was a sourdough roll. Sourdough bread has to be on my all-time list of favorite breads, very near (if not at) the top—and Claim Jumper does a great job on their sourdough. I even tried to become a fan on Facebook, or join a group, or something…but there weren’t any good ones (well, there was one, but it was for bakers intersted in naturally leavened breads, pretty outside my scope of “sourdough bread tastes good, I like to eat it…”). If you’re interested, you can see it here.

Okay, enough food talk…let’s get to the meat and potatoes of this review!

Their bathroom utilize dark woods and dark-colored tiles (dark green and a purple-red), and offsets that with bright lighting and a white floor (although there are dark green tiles in the floor). The result is a warm inviting—almost cheery—bathroom that’s not overly intimate or too cozy. Claim Jumper keeps their bathrooms clean, which is pretty amazing since it’s hard to even get a seat in the bar area (where we ended up sitting) on a Saturday night. Add to that generous portions and a stacked bar and if you weren’t on top of things…well, I’ll leave that to your imagination—Enjoy!

Claim Jumper gets four rolls for cleanliness and design…and I still don’t really get why bathrooms need to have AC adapters…hmm…maybe I shouldn’t ask…

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Ahhh, Wendy’s…Dave Thomas’ life work and home of the Baconator™ and the ever-present (and basically the new F-150 of fast food beverages) Frosty™…and of course square hamburgers. According to Wikipedia, the burgers are square and the Frostys™ thick thanks to Dave Thomas’ visits to Kewpee Hamburgers in his hometown of Bellville, NJ (where he apparently got the idea for “Old Fashioned Hamburgers,” too). Anyway, that was dinner last night (9/30/09).

This bathroom is pretty plain, but fast food franchisees have enough to worry about without making the bathroom exciting for connoisseuers such as myself. Sorry, Wendy’s in Roseville, that doesn’t get you off the hook. I found the layout kind of interesting, for a second (see picture four) I thought someone was gonna open that door into me while I was using the facilities. It turns out that the wall prevents that from happening. The bathroom is colorful though, so they get props for that (it’s worth a half-roll, not too shabby). I found what looks to be an access door for the hand dryer pretty amusing, and frankly I’m not sure why they have a 110-volt wall plug in the bathroom, but I guess if you really need to blow-dry your hair it makes sense. Three rolls for a clean colorful bathroom.

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If you’ve never been to Fresh Choice (I was there on 9/17/09) I recommend you go. They have a great selection of tasty and healthy foods, and while I’m sure detractors out there want to scream “but it’s not veeegaaan” or something equally ridiculous, it’s good food and if you really want a meal of all tofu, you can get it there—knock yourself out. My buddy’s kid tried tofu for the first time…don’t think he’ll be doing that again.

The bathroom is done in earth tones (surprising, eh?) and they found a plant to match nicely with the walls and stalls. I’m not sure about storing the “wet floor” sign so close to the urinal though…seems like an “accident” waiting to happen. Three-and-a-half rolls for keeping the bathroom clean and in sync with the whole concept behind Fresh Choice.

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I was really hoping for a buffet-style restroom…I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m pretty sure it would be funny. Maybe a row of soaps to choose from, different styles of urinals, different materials used on the toilets and urinals (porcelain, stainless steel, marble perhaps???—think that might suck to clean though—and the always-popular copper would be an interesting choice). I visited 9/16/09 for dinner.

The restroom is done in green-and-white, carrying over the color scheme of the restaurant. Interestingly enough, they had a baby-changing station in the mens’ room…so let me get this straight…they’re forward-thinking socio-politically but not green-ly or economically (i.e., by using automated toilets, sinks, soap dispensers, and lighting systems). Not that I’m knocking them for the changing station, I’d much rather babies use changing stations than sinks (let’s face it, the last thing I want is to be washing my hands and hit by some newborn’s overspray). Three-and-a-half rolls for an average clean bathroom maintaining the color scheme and including the changing station.

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