El Arriero, Medford Oregon

The best thing about El Arriero (aka The Areola) was that we all got to celebrate Dannielle's birthday!  We had a minor glitch in the beginning in that our reservation had somehow disappear from the planet but the hostess quickly pulled some tables together & had our party of 13 seated in no time.  The service for the rest of the evening was great and the food and drinks were average for a family style Mexican restaurant in the Rogue Valley area.  For some reason Southern Oregon is NOT known for its delicious, authentic Mexican restaurants.  We have many lovely features that we are very proud of here in Southern Oregon but we definitely got left out of the Mexican cuisine department.  Es no bueno.  However, El Arriero has a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere & we managed to have a great time.  Of course, our group kind of brings the party wherever we go.  We should be paid, really.  We are to restaurants what canned laughter is to studio audiences.  Anyway, about the bathroom....as you can see, a lot of thought was given to the initial painting & decorating of  

this restroom.  It is colorfully tiled and painted.  It is rather unexceptional other than that.  Not particularly clean but acceptable.  The papertowel dispenser was empty as you can see in this next photo.  There were toilet seat covers laying on the tank in the small stall.  There are 2 stalls- one HUGE ass stall that you really could fit a cot, fridge & cook stove in and basically live in and  another tiny narrow stall that the door hits the toilet so you have to squeeze in one side to get the door opened or closed.  That must be for the human contortionist customers.   The best thing about this bathroom was that I ran into an old friend.  Recon Roy was hanging out on the counter between the 2 lovely, hand painted basins!  What a coinky-dink! 

So, other than running into a dirty little soldier in this banio, there wasn't anything special to report.  I give it 1/2 a roll for cleanliness, 1/4 roll for comfort & 1/2 roll for style.  1 and 1/4 rolls out of 3.  Arriba Areola!