In order to stand out as "unique" in Las Vegas, you have to really up your game. Hotel-casinos try to find a niche and gain a competitive advantage in a number of ways. That includes the loo.
As a friend noted the last time he was in Las Vegas, the city has an abundance of clean public restrooms, especially considering the amount of foot traffic and the notorious party atmosphere. It's a noteworthy feat for a lavatory in a city this big to be clean, let alone unusual.
Some hotels, such as Luxor, carry their themed décor into the restrooms. Fortunately, that’s not the case for all hotels with a theme. I mean, if you’re at Circus Circus, you don’t want clowns integrated into the restrooms. At least we hope not.
You'll find a number of prestigious powder rooms, especially on the Strip, near hotel lobbies, such as the one in the Venetian. Paris integrates the Parisian theme into one of the casino latrines. The pedestal sinks and blue-and-white tiles are very fancy indeed, and the stalls have attractive, dark wood doors. Oh là là. Others are in the proximity of expensive restaurants, like Picasso’s potty at Bellagio. These places tend to have a lot of marble and fixtures that probably cost more than my house.
The Wynn has marble dividers between urinals in one of the men’s restrooms. Wynn’s next-door neighbor, Encore, doesn’t copycat its sister property in this respect. There must have been a run on marble, because Encore just uses granite from the floor to the ceiling. Oh yeah -- and lots of gold plate.
For proof that Caesars is still a palace after 40 years, look no further than the restrooms. One of Caesars' little emperor’s rooms not far from the casino has unique black-and-white tiling and offers a huge marble vanity with intricate ceramic tiles between the mirrors. Another sign that you’re in a very exclusive hotel is when you see art (and I don’t mean dogs playing poker) in its public restrooms.
The Beatles-themed REVOLUTION Lounge at the Mirage extends the psychedelic theme into the bathroom, with unisex restrooms situated around a centralized circular washbasin that's placed beneath a scalloped chandelier constructed from dichroic glass.
While the restaurant is decent but not remarkable, in our humble opinion, the ladies room at Sushi Ave. (W. Flamingo) is worth visiting if you're there, since it features one of those ultra hi-tech Brondell toilet-cum-bidet contraptions that affords you all kinds of options, including seat-warming, blow-drying, and various temperature-controlled water jets which, frankly, scared the life out of current writer.
Now let’s turn it up another notch. Mandalay Bay has two washrooms worthy of praise. First, Mix Lounge, at the top of the hotel tower, has incredible views of the Strip from floor-to-ceiling windows in each stall and in front of the urinals, along with a modern sleek look. And you need that after you’ve been mixing it up at the lounge, right? And China Grill, a fancy restaurant, has TVs in the restroom. Just in case you get bored while you’re in there. Maybe you could flip around and see what’s on the Bathroom Channel. In the same building, in the four Seasons lobby outside Charlie Palmer Steak, the toilet stalls in the men's room (at least; we haven't checked out the ladies') are actual water closets: They have full walls and doors, so you can do just about anything in them that requires extra privacy.
As far as (rest)rooms with a view are concerned, you should also check out the ladies' at Moon (Palms), where the the two stalls at the far end have floor-to-ceiling windows with a spectacular view. Fear not, boys: There's also floor-to-ceiling glass in the men's room, with a urinal right next to it that makes it the one of the most breathtaking spots in the world to relieve yourself.
And as reported as a June 2 Las Vegas Advisor news item, Zefferino Ristorante’s comfort station has been getting a great deal of attention lately. It is up for a Cintas America’s Best Restroom award. You have until July 31 to cast your vote. But don’t wait too long. As your doctor has probably told you, it’s not good to hold it in.
So, there's a round-up of some of the classier water closets in town. But, this being Vegas there are, of course, some more off-the-wall (hopefully not literally) bathrooms that definitely warrant a mention.
One of the most famous fixtures is downtown. You may have read about, seen, or visited the men’s restroom at Main Street Station, which features urinals affixed to part of the Berlin Wall. Former owner and antique/oddity collector Robert Snow felt the men's latrine seemed was the most appropriate place to display his chunk of the infamous wall. And carrying on the theme, there are historic photos and Berlin Wall facts and figures above the urinals. Main Street Station even mentions the Berlin Wall in the "antiques" section of their website.
The Terrible's McDonald's at 2836 W. Ann Road, North Las Vegas (corner of Ann Rd. and Simmons St.) was featured on Travel Channel's "Las Vegas' Top 10 Bathrooms" show, on account of its incongruous gold fixtures and fittings -- and chandeliers!
Then there's the "comedy" men's room at the Las Vegas Hilton (by the baccarat room and cashier's cage), which has photos of ladies above the urinals looking down at you in various poses. Some are in awe, some are laughing, some are smirking, some peering over their eyeglasses as if to they're looking but can't see, and some are carrying tape measures!
At the grunge end of the spectrum, the Double Down Saloon is as notorious for its punk restrooms as it is for its signature bacon maritinis and shots of @$$ Juice (see photo below).
The Palms was one of the first (if not the first) property in Las Vegas to put individual TV monitors in the restrooms of venues like N9NE Steakhouse and the Ghostbar, the latter being one of the first to offer full-on preening service, with an attendant armed with an array of lotions, potions, sprays, cigarettes, and breath mints. These days, neither the "bathroom valet" nor the TV screens is so unusual, but New York-New York's ESPN restautant is a little different: There are TV screens above the urinals as well as in the stalls (men's and women's) tuned, naturally, to ESPN.
Moving into the realm of the "sexy" restroom, The Playboy Club at the Palms boasts sixty plasma screens that display rotating images of Playboy Mansion parties, centerfold shoots, and magazine covers, while a texturized collage of pin-ups papers the restrooms, featuring every Playboy centerfold in the magazine's history.
Patrons entering the restrooms at Red Rock's CHERRY nightclub are confronted with what appears to be a holographic wall. Two projectors suspended from the ceiling beam an image onto a clear glass with a special film that captures the image. Without it, the glass is clear and guests could see through to the restroom's custom washbasin. The surrounding walls of the bathroom are lined in snakeskin tile mosaics and the doors to the stalls are translucent from the inside out. Shipped all the way from Holland, the pièce de résistance, however, (if you can call it that) is the gentlemen restroom, where the urinals are made up of glass, red-hot, pouting lips.
The Erotic Heritage Museum prides itself as is one of the few places in Las Vegas where you are ENCOURAGED to leave a dirty joke on the bathroom wall! (Josette's Bistro, a former LVA "Local Corner" pick, also encourages graffiti in the ladies room, but it's more oriented towards kisses and fairies and all things pink and sparkly.)
Last but not least, Seamless gentlemen's/after-hours club (off Tropicana Ave. at Arville) has unisex stalls with clear glass doors that frost up when the door locks.
We think that about covers the best and most extreme of Las Vegas' restrooms, but if you know of one that we missed, please send us notification (preferably with pictures!). In the meantime, here are links to some other lavatorially-themed sites that might be of interest or amusement: The World's Greatest Bathrooms and urinal.net (worth browsing the archives and generally poking around).
Thanks to Mike Attisano, author of Simplifying Las Vegas, available on Kindle and as a pdf at simplifyinglasvegas.com, for his contribution to this answer.
