the best rest room in tampa bay

We have heard references to websites devoted to ranking public rest rooms, but we’ve never taken the time to look.  Until now.

Cintas – yep, the uniform people – has a service division, where they will clean and stock your facilities.  To promote those services, each year they look for America’s Best Rest Room.

Others review public toilets for kicks, I guess.  RestroomRatings.com says they are “a special spot on the web for public restroom reviews from around the world,” while The Bathroom Diaries claims to be the “World’s Largest Guide to Public Toilets, Restrooms, Bathrooms, and Loos.”  You can also read the Toilet Inspector, The latest is Sit or Squat, a map-based “place to find and record bathrooms,” and sponsored by Charmin.

So we went to some of these sites, looking for the leading local lavatory.

The Bathroom Diaries have recorded seventeen mini-reviews of local public toilets in Tampa, and a handful each in Clearwater and St. Pete.  On Where’s The Toilet?, I found a single long (and I mean loooooong) review of one of the bathrooms at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino:

…The bathrooms here seem to be modeled after a combination of several glam rock stars, like modern-day Steven Tyler and KISS, among others….

It got an 8 out of 10, which equates to “I’m kinda liking it here” on his scale.  However, this brings us no closer to finding the best loo in Tampa Bay.

In an article about the Cintas contest, Tampa Theatre’s Tara Schroeder says they are tops in the area:

“We’ve got the best restrooms,” she said, “And the ladies’ rooms are even better. Have you ever been in the ladies’ room? Our restrooms have a certain je ne sais quoi.”

Indeed, the facilities at Tampa Theatre do have character, and are generally clean and comfortable.  But are they the best in all of Tampa Bay?