They were almost — almost — America’s Best Restrooms.
Zeffirino Ristorante’s restrooms couldn’t quite elbow out Radio City Music Hall in the annual publicity-stunt contest. Or the marble-columned facilities at the Tremont Plaza Hotel in Baltimore. Or the winning entry, the Shoji Tabuchi Theatre in Missouri. (It has a pool table. And a fireplace!)
But the men’s and ladies’ rooms at Zeffirino Ristorante, with its marble floors, butter pecan-colored tiles and other Italian imports, still hold significance on the Las Vegas Strip.
Zeffirino’s restroom is something of a monument to the era of Luxury Las Vegas. In 2006, before the recession chiseled away at profligate spending, the Italian restaurant inside The Venetian poured nearly $1 million into transforming a private dining room into a pair of lavish lavatories. It made perfect sense that, on the ever-more-ornate Strip, the women’s restroom boasted a limestone lion’s head trickling water into a basin filled with fresh roses. (Well, for a time. The region’s hard water corroded the limestone and demanded that a florist replenish the roses daily.)
Nearly all the decor was shipped from Italy, including a wishing well from Naples with carved figures of maidens. The restaurant’s ceiling was painted to suggest centuries of water damage, though The Venetian opened only a decade ago.
Now, with the downturn trimming the average Zeffirino dinner bill by about one-third, the bathrooms are examples of Strip excess gawked at by bargain-hunters. On a recent afternoon, tourists briefly marveled at a delicate Murano glass chandelier — before dashing off to happy hour specials.
