By OWEN MORRIS
Most restaurant employees would look at a person funny if he came in and asked to take photos of the restroom. Not at Christopher Elbow. The workers at the gourmet chocolatier just give a knowing nod. “Some people just go straight to the restroom to show their friends," Rachel Plant tells me. "When Chris has people he knows come in, he’ll take them their first.”
Chris would be the eponymous owner. The former pastry chef at The American Restaurant designed his restroom with the same artistic flair that adorns his chocolates. He event went so far as to steal borrow the sink.
“It’s true. The guy Chris got the sink from basically took one from the Hilton," Plant says. "Chris saw the faucet at a showroom and said he had to have it. But it was for a hotel Nikki Hilton was building. So the guy at the showroom took it for Chris to save a long wait. But then later, of course, replaced it.”
What makes the sink worth stealing is its water spout. The spout has colored lights that correspond to the temperature of the water. When the water is cold the lights appear blue, when it's hot they're red and when it’s somewhere in-between, the colors reflect that too.
Having such a special sink means that most everyone who uses the bathroom comments on it -- at least those that wash their hands.
“You can totally tell who washes their hands by who notices the sink," Plant says. "We’ll have people who come out of the bathroom and their friends ask them about the sink and they’ll have to admit to not washing their hands.”
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