Monday, March 14, 2011

Bovine Beauty


Where: The Comfy Cow, Louisville, KY

I have another twofer for you!

The Comfy Cow is a local ice cream joint run by Tim and Roy Koons-McGee, who make all the treats in-house. The whole place is adorable and cow-themed, and I advise checking it out if you love yourself at all.

The women's room is very playful, with the color scheme from the rest of the
restaurant inverted-- where in nthe dining room, the walls are a warm
brown with pink and cream polka dots, in the women's room, the walls
are pink with brown and white polka

dots. (The distressed white wood
theme runs throughout.)





Despite the little-girl decorating scheme, everything is rather simple
inside-- fixtures, sink, etc. all very common and expected. Other than
the gilded mirror, there is no art on the walls, and the only other
major decoration in the room is a mannequin dressed as an employee,
in a uniform with an apron, and a wig made out of a mop head. (I apologize for the quality of this photo.)



From this experience, I expected the men's room to be like the women's room, only different-- blue with polka dots, I guess, and a male mannequin.

Little did I know there was to be no mannequin at all. Or polka dots, for that matter.

Both the men's and the women's restrooms at the Comfy Cow are singles, so there aren't any stalls. The aged white-painted wood remained constant, but the men's room was solid brown. Next to the toilet in the men's room-- but not the women's room-- was a rack with newspapers in it. The mirror in the men's room was white distressed wood to match the walls on the lower half, which I actually liked better than the mirror in the women's room.






















But the big changes were still to come. Instead of a cutesy mannequin and dots, the men's room decorating relied on novelty art prints of cows in funny situations-- things I suppose men are more likely to find funny? One of them was even an advertisement specially created by another establishment in the same shopping center, Westport Whiskey and Wine.
















I loved these prints, and I wish the women's room had something like them.

I was confused, however, by some of the other decorating choices.




















The lone shutter mounted strangely on the wall I must assume is analogous to the wall of shutters in the dining room which act as a bulletin board.

The hose... must be... there for some reason, right? Are we supposed to feel like we're in a garden shed? Or, better yet, peeing outside? I will probably never know, and I think I like it that way.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

wth?


Where: Thai Orchid Cafe, Lexington, KY

This is basically the best little restaurant. Located in a strip mall that appears to be a former warehouse (next door to a Jalapeno's), it's a small family-owned restaurant with the most amazing, authentic cuisine. (For certain values of authentic which I, an American who has never been to Thailand, am able to judge.)

The whole restaurant is adorable, painted a classic pale orchid purple, and photographs of orchids line the walls of the dining rooms. All kinds and colors of orchids-- for whatever reason, this is their gimmick. (It's continued in the bathroom-- above is pictured the lone attempt at bathroom decor.)

The bathroom, however, is disappointing, and it totally breaks the charm of the place. In the first place, it's very Spartan (very econo-closet chic) and doesn't seem to be cleaned very often (or at least very well.) The floor was wet with some unknown substance when I entered.



The mirror was literally a piece of glass mounted on the wall-- no frame of any kind-- and the light, a long fluorescent bulb, was covered with cheap clear plastic. It was doing that awful flickery thing, which I loathe. (The picture below attempted to capture this effect but instead my camera made some weird stripey thing as a reaction to the light, so you can see neither the light nor the mirror clearly.)


Most perplexing of all: on one of the taupe walls was mounted two 8.5" x 11" pieces of clear plastic. Held in with screws, they seemed to be meant to hold some kind of papers in place-- but there were no papers of any kind in evidence.


To conclude, I'd have to judge this a very confusing bathroom experience, and might suggest to the owners of this restaurant that their establishment could become THE Thai dining venue, if only they would class up the restrooms a bit.