I need to get out more…and travel, so I can review some bathrooms not in the Sacramento area. Which reminds me…if you’re interested in writing for us, pop me an email at goodies[at]nobathanksthroomgoodies[dot]com. We’d love to hear from ya (and hopefully get a crazy bathroom or two in!)

Okey dokey…wow, this was further back than I thought! Here I was thinking I was gonna talk a bit about the Double Down sandwich and it turns out this was a much earlier outing (I guess twice in 3-4 months isn’t horrible). So I can only guess this was about the time they released the grilled spicy wings (would be about right…around football season marching toward “the big game”—thanks for not suing me, NFL!). On a side note, the Double Down sandwich a couple months later was alright, but overly greasy (they were fresh…think they might have needed to sit a bit), and frankly, missing a bun. Not sure about the missing bun thing…although it probably saves a couple hundred calories off a quarter of your daily intake (540 original/460 grilled…nearly half from fat…from KFC’s nutritional document—requires Adobe Reader). Two trips in four months now seems like more than enough.

Anyway…onto the bathrooms…they’re more or less your “neo-typical” fast-food bathrooms. Nothing fancy, but not the old dingy look from back in the day. They’re nicely accented with red tiles on the white background, and the staff does a decent job of keeping them clean. I’ll give ‘em 3 rolls for a clean bathroom and not the plain ol’ white.

I always like to see clean restrooms in fast food joints because it’s slightly encouraging that the kitchen may not be terrible. People get all weirded out with bacteria and grease build-up, but are a-okay with eating two slices of pepperjack cheese and two slices of bacon between two fried chicken breasts…

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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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Some of you may be old enough to remember the days when McDonald’s had a standard bathroom layout, with yellow tiles (maybe it was the lighting) and all “Mickey D’s” bathrooms looked the same (if you’re not old enough, go into one of the McD’s that hasn’t updated in the last 10-20 years or so, and you’ll see what I mean—for all you whippersnappers out there, that’s what McD’s bathrooms looked like in the “glory days” of the 80′s and 90′s—I use the term “days” loosely). I was here Saturday 10/03/09.

Boy how times have changed—this bathroom uses woodgrain stalls and tiles with a woodgrain-ish appearance. I don’t really get why buildings built in the last few years use manual toilets anymore, it seems people oppose flushing (or maybe just touching the flusher) and automatic toilets certainly keep things cleaner. In picture four you’ll see hand washing instructions, which I found interesting since McD’s never gave up the hot-air hand dryers (I hate those things)…sort of a throwback to those days of yore. Three rolls for a clean bathroom; it’d get three-and-a-half except for those air dryers.

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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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