The Loo Review

We recently read a little bit about litter box cakes - these are real, edible cakes that look like kitty litter but are actually made of German chocolate cake and crumbled cookies with tootsie rolls to look like poop. They are served in (clean) litter boxes using (clean) litter scoopers are utentils. It turns out that a lot of people like to serve these cakes on April Fool’s Day and on Halloween as a sort of saucy, spooky, witty, holiday-appropriate take on dessert.

It got us thinking: wouldn’t it be funnier to serve up a box of actual (dirty) kitty litter as a cake using (dirty) litter scoopers as utentils? You could throw in some real tootsie rolls just to throw people off a little.

We learned the other day (from a friend, we think, though one can never be sure about these things) that employees at the GAP are required to let customers use their restrooms, regardless of the number of pairs of khakis you may or may not be buying. In fact, we learned that many a street vendor will walk in off the street, ask to use the bathroom, and then, having done their business, walk right out again. We were unable to confirm this policy, however - anyone have the inside poop for us?

In the course of our extensive research, we did come across a site that seems to be as well visited and updated as our own, addyourown. The section of interest to us is the one entitled “addyourown: Manhattan restrooms and reviews” and while the site itself purports to be a “fast, easy, free way for people to find restaurants, coffeeshops, bookstores, and other places in major cities worldwide,” this one particular section could prove useful to someone finding themselves in Manhattan with the urge to go and access to the Internet but no toilet.

Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the other cities listed on the site, and if you happen to find yourself in, say, Manhattan Beach and in need of a loo, you are - ahem - SOL.

• addyourown: Manhattan restrooms and reviews