Dragonfly Cafe and Gardens Ashland, Oregon

Last night we ventured into Ashland again for dinner club to dine at the Dragonfly.  They have a very pretty outdoor dining area with terraced gardens, shade trees and twinkly lights strewn along fences and up tree trunks.  Our server was knowledgable and spunky.  The drinks were okay.  They don't seem to have alot of basics on hand (no spiced rum...really?) for a full bar.  However, the food was to die for.  Excellent preparation and wonderful selection.  The atmosphere at Dragonfly is comfortable and laid back.  The restroom was...interesting.  It is a one seater, as I like to call them, so there are no stalls.  I waited in the hallway until it became available.

The bathroom has some nice features.  There are colorful, framed photographs on the walls that catch the eye.  There is a table near the basin which is nice for setting your purse, etc on (here you will notice my cute, BIG purse which I purchased at a great little boutique on NW 23rd in Portland, OR.)  Fun place to shop!   A nice big mirror hangs above the pedestal basin. and you know how important a decent mirror is!  But other than the table and large mirror there were no other comfort features. 

The bathroom was not super clean but it was tolerable.  The toilet paper and paper towels were well stocked.  So this bathroom does have some decent features but now we must discuss the "interesting" features.  First lets touch on the obvious: that green wall paint.  Now I realize that some people (somewhere) may really like this color of paint.  I, however, have an aversion to it.  My personal opinion is that it looks like the color of flu season or baby doody.  Two things that you really don't want to think about when you are out to eat.  Not that it was truly that appalling or anything, but when Dragonfly chose their bathroom paint I think they went  for whatever was on the bargain table that day.  The next interesting feature we will discuss is the closet located in the bathroom.  It has no doors...just a sliding black woven screen across the door frame...and  I am pretty sure the Boogey Man lives there.   

The Boogey Man and I have a relationship.  It is a rocky one & we go waaay back.  Although I have never actually seen him, I know that he likes to lurk behind my shower curtain, under my bed, and in my closet.  Well, Dragonfly's bathroom closet must be his primary residence.  Its dark and creepy and has 2 more doors inside: one leading to his torture chambers and the other to the gates of hell.  Just kidding, this closet functions as a cleaning supplies closet but I highly recommend that Dragonfly invest in the installation of some real doors with locks on it.  Between the pukey green paint and the Boogey Man hide-out, a girl can get a little distracted in that room of un-rest!  

All these doors and cleaning paraphernalia you see here are inside the closet.  So to conclude this review I give the womens' bathroom at the Dragonfly 1/4 roll for style & aesthetics, 1/4 roll for cleanliness & 1/4 roll for comfort.  That is a total of 3/4 of a roll on the 3 roll system.  I hope the Dragonfly uses this as constructive criticism.  It would just take a few simple changes to make the restroom live up to the greatness of the rest of the restaurant. 

Britt Venue, Jacksonville, Oregon

I had no intention of using the Britt restrooms on my blog but there were some interesting, unusual & unexpected features that I could not pass up. Plus I had a glass of wine or 3, which always makes everything more fun! So check out these sticky notes! I went to the website listed on them and you should too. The person responsible for this site and these notes is a girl after my own heart. I LOVE them! Here it is, check it out: http://operationbeautiful.com/ I thought it was going to be about trying to sell people some type of beauty product but that is not the case. It is just someone who wants to inspire girls and women to feel better about themselves. So cool!

By the way, people really give me some strange looks when I have my camera out and am snapping away in a public restroom. Yeah, women don't like that so very much. Makes it a bit difficult to get good photos some times. But its all in a days work. I just hope the bail isn't too high when I get arrested for it. So here is another interesting note. "We're all brothers and sisters" I like the message but I better not catch any brothers in this restroom.

Next we have the lovely forest creatures taking up residence in the bathroom. As you can see here I had a fat spider nestled in the corner above one restroom stall and a 'squito hawk in the next stall. They were just hanging out, minding their own insect business.

And last but not least, the handbag. This is my Mommy's Coach bag. This handbag (No-name) has long wanted to be a part of the bathroom blog and this was her chance. She is a little jealous of the LV (Stresa) featured in the last post but as you can see, she holds her own. Thanks for viewing my blog. Hope you enjoyed my latest bathroom fix!

Centennial Grille, Centennial Golf Club, Medford, OR

The Centennial Grille is the restaurant located within the Centennial Golf Club. It is the perfect fair weather restaurant because it has outdoor seating with a view that will astound you. If you have an eye for natural beauty, then you will admire the rolling slopes of the beautifully green and carefully manicured golf course, the surrounding hills to the East and mountains to the West, all set against the bright blue sky. The restaurant itself is one of Medford's best kept secrets. They have a varied selection on the menu, good food, super pricing on their meals AND drinks (gin & tonic, $3!!), very comfortable atmosphere, and delightful waitstaff. A big bonus is that they don't charge an automatic gratuity for large groups like so many restaurants do these days. Jeremy, our server, was a cutie. Our group was quite large and all on seperate tickets. The seperate ticket thing seems to be a deal breaker for alot of servers but Jeremy just rolled with it. He was helpful, informative and apparently thought we were hilarious. At least I hope that's why he was always laughing when he came to our table! We can be quite a handful, let me tell ya. Now for the bathrooms! To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. I mean, its a golf club. I just did not think a whole lot of attention would be paid to the design and decor of the womens' restroom. So fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. Let me apologize for some of the photography. I had a hard time getting good shots. I'm not sure if it was the lighting in the room or because I was a little nervous and didn't take enough time (generally women do not like seeing or hearing cameras in public restrooms). I took several photos with and without the flash & these are the best of what I ended up with. The room was very clean and well stocked. A few seat covers were wadded up and tossed on the toilet tank in one stall but everything else was clean enough that it was obviously a random thing that the bathroom attendant just hadn't seen yet. There are 2 stalls. The large one has a chair in the corner (bonus!) and a large frosted window allowing filtered natural light into the room. Allow me to introduce you to my new friend, Stresa. She is the handbag on the chair in the photo above. Yes, handbags do have names. And from what I hear, Stresa earned her moniker. She actually belongs to Trisha, who so graciously allowed me to display Stresa in my bathroom blog. Thank you Trisha!

Now, this bathroom was not only clean but rather stylishly decorated. The decor was very Zen with the calm tones, corian counter tops, soft chairs, smooth stones engraved with soothing words, and framed wall prints of vibrant flowers. The only eye sores were the bulletin board with golf related information posted on the wall & and the unframed poster board of golfer photos. So un-Zen. Harshed the groove. Inhibited the journey to enlightenment. They gots ta go. Bye! The only good thing about the bulletin board was that it was a place to pin up my bathroom blog business card.

There were also some curious little strange spots on the chair in the entrance area. Great idea to have a chair there but lets have one that we might actually want to sit in. Ew. The bathroom was furnished with a few nice extras.

Cute little bottles of hand wash, Kleenex, and hand lotion were all prettily displayed. Another excellent feature of this restroom was the gigantic mirror above the 2 basin counter top. I don't have to tell you that this not only attributes to good lighting but, most importanlty, it helps with getting the full effect when you need to check your look!

So, for this restroom I will award 1 full roll for cleanliness, 3/4 for style, and 3/4 for comfort with a grand total of 2 1/2 rolls. Not bad. Centennial gets big props for paying attention to detail.

Gaetano Ristorante Italiano, Medford, OR

One word for this restaurant AND its bathroom: Fabulous!

Gaetano is a fairly new restaurant in the Rogue Valley. My dinner club group heard good things about it so we chose it for our May dinner night out. We arrived early but they already had our table waiting for us. We were seated in the Trattoria room which is a sunny room with beautiful murals on the walls. The restaurant decor, throughout, gave the feeling of a Meditteranean cobblestone village, complete with fountain, arched and columned walkways, and delicious old world cuisine. The very best feature of this restaurant is the staff. From the gorgeous and very accomodating hostess to the knowledgeable, cute and very charming servers, to the bus girls. Even at the busiest, most hectic portion of the evening they were all super friendly and seemed happy to be there. At one point I was stopped in the hallway (after a bathroom photo shot excursion) by one of the male servers just so he could compliment my attire. He told me I looked fabulous (I was going for fierce but I will take fabulous). He even gave me a fashion tip: He adjusted my handbag so the designer logo was showing. Hello! I need to take this guy home. Can you say Personal Fashion Assistant? Who doesn't need one? Now for the bathroom. I just loved this place. I think it is now one of my top 4 faves because it had some unique features that I just loved. I am so excited about this bathroom! Did I mention that I loved it? First of all, there is a subtle detection of a nice flowery fragrance in the hallway leading to the restrooms. Pleasing fragrances are always a good sign. The entrance is decorated really well. Along the way, in an alcove, there is a little bistro set and lots of fun, bold prints hanging on the walls.

The restroom has 2 stalls and 2 basins. The basins are one of the bathroom's best features. They are glass bowls, one set into the counter, the other resting above. As you can see, one bowl has a scalloped lip. The faucet is shaped like a joy stick and the water runs onto a glass "saucer" then cascades from there into the basin. It is so fun! Its just a fun design. The extra amenities at the counter are hand lotion, kleenex, and hand sanitizer, as well as wall mounted hand soap.

The restroom is super clean with brand new everything. The lighting fixtures are modern and unique. The oval mirrors above the basins are nice and big and well lit. The wall hangings are vibrant and eye catching. The flooring is partially simulated wood grain and part simulated cooble stone, giving the illusion of depth and texture. There were only a couple draw backs to this restroom that we noticed. One is that there are no hooks or flat surfaces for setting personal items or hanging attire on in the bathroom stalls. That definitely needs rectified. I don't even see how that can be over looked. Right? And one of my bathroom critique conspirators, Catrina, noticed that the toilet seat cover dispenser was empty in one stall. Other than that, this was a flawless ladies' room. So, as much as I adored this "stanza del bagno" I must give it 2 3/4 rolls only. 1 perfect roll for cleanliness, 1 perfect roll for aesthetics, and 3/4 roll for comfort. Even though this bathroom was not worthy of a perfect score, I give it much amore and it should be an inspiration to all the other ambitious little restaurant bathrooms out there. Thank you Gaetano's we will definitely be back!

Always a gratuitous photo of me and another one showcasing the latest handbag I be sportin'.

Callahan's Siskiyou Lodge, Ashland, Oregon

This month's featured bathroom is located in the Callahan Siskiyou Lodge, Ashland, Oregon. The Callahan Lodge was established in 1947 and is a local favorite. It is tucked in a quiet corner at the base of Mount Ashland, about a 30 minute drive South of Medford. The original Callahan Lodge burned to the ground a few years ago. It has been rebuilt and decorated in the rustic, lodge style that makes it cozy and homey. For those readers who are interested in dining at Callahan's at some point in the future, here is a tip for you: Call your reservations in at least 1 to 2 weeks ahead. If your party is a group of 6 or more make it clear that the tickets will be split, if applicable. Then remind the server when you arrive for your reservation that the tickets will be separate. They don't seem to be very equipped for large groups/split bills. Aside from that, the whole dining experience was lovely. We were seated in a timely manner. Our meals and drinks were delicious. Callahan's has a 2 sided fireplace, an outdoor deck for dining, and a full service bar. The entertainment, a singer/guitarist was (arguably) a nice touch. Does he take requests? I don't know. I never could get any of my dinner partners liquored up enough to go ask him to play "Stairway to Heaven" but not for lack of trying. Before I start on the restroom, I have to once again thank my dinner group for their support. I now have business cards thanks to my friends, that I leave as my calling card for each bathroom I critique. How fun is that?! Now on to the bathroom!Well, my first impression of the bathroom was very positive. I mean, the building itself is practically brand new so the bathroom was super clean...fresh paint, new stalls, fixtures, tiles, the whole shebang. Shebang...heh heh heh...funny word...anyway, the room definitely had the newness and cleanliness going for it and I liked the tile work and granite-like countertops. A positive was that it was very spacious. There were 3 stalls, 2 basins, a giant mirror, 2 papertowel dispensers, and even an electricity outlet near the basin. You know, I'm noticing that I get very strange looks from people when they walk in to do their personal business and there I am snapping away with my camera. Awwwwkwwwward! Ahhh, the trials of an investigative bathroom paparazzo. C'est la freaking vie. Now, the downsides of this room were that, upon closer inspection, I must say that it lacked any element of style or comfort. There was not a single wall hanging, chair, sofa, side table, or any furnishing of comfort. BO-ring! All neutral colors, no splash of color to add a little somethin' somethin'. To be fair, I did hear from another dinner guest that the papertowels were super soft and good quality. I meant to check that out when I went in to do my inspection but as I turned to use the papertowel dispenser I was completely distracted by the bathroom's best feature: The little toy soldier doing restroom recon on top of the towel dispenser. See him there in the photo below? Yes, I freely admit that I am amused and entertained easily. He shall be named Restroom Recon Roy. RRR. But I digress, now for my final scoring of this bathroom: 1 full tp roll for cleanliness, 1/2 for comfort, and about 1/4 roll for style. It wasn't ugly, just blahhh. Thanks for reading! See you next time.