Ethos Vegan Kitchen Has a Winning Recipe!

Some restaurants have great food and some have great atmosphere, but VERY few have both. Today I discovered Ethos Vegan Kitchen, a neighborhood charm in across the street from Gaston Edwards Park in Orlando. Well, I didn't exactly "discover" it by accident, I found it after I did a search for vegetarian-friendly outdoor dining in Orlando. Ethos had some of the highest online ratings on various restaurant search engines such as my VegOut iPhone app where they hold a Five Star rating with 56 reviews! On Urbanspoon 90% of 372 people like it! According to Ethos customers, owners Laina and Kelly Shockley know how to please!

From the online photos and the view from the road, I wasn't so sure about the restaurant. But as soon as I stepped inside, I felt at home in this inviting atmosphere. The warm yellow and red tones on the walls are accented with brick and wood. The floors are partial tile and partial rough concrete. It works very well for this down-to-earth locally-owned restaurant. The lighting is just right--not too high or low. And the music is a mix of sensual tunes like Midnight In A Perfect World by DJ Shadow and Brown Skin Lady on Black Star, an album assembled by emcees Mos Def and Talib Kweli.

While I was in line, a talkative birthday girl celebrating her 40th randomly introduced herself to me. I told her it was my first time to this restaurant and she raved about the food telling me that everything on the menu is fantastic. She was talking among lots of her yogi friends in line telling them all about the fabulous food.

It was quick and easy to place an order. You order at the front register and then they bring the food to your table. The two tables near the front windows are great seating with a view of the park and lake. It's also a nice spot to sit if you're waiting for a friend to arrive before you place your order. The front windows are bright and beautiful in the daytime! And if you're inside, you can access free WiFi.

Near the back of the restaurant, there's a great area with not only tables, but also a couch and some chairs. It's a comfortable place to congregate and that's just where the 40th birthday girl was schmoozing with her friends.

No business is complete without local art! If the number of pieces were a measure of their commitment to local artists, then I would say that Ethos is very committed to the well-being of the local community--not only in providing tasteful vegan delights, but also in supporting local artists. In fact, when I asked about the art, one of the employees told me that they recently had an art show put together by their resident artist, Scott White.

"Resident artist?"

How many businesses can boast of their resident artist?

Apparently Scott recently coordinated an art show displaying collaborative art among local artists. How much more can one restaurant help create camaraderie among local artists and customers? Check out this creative concoction between Scott White and El Shanebo. Priced at only $60, this piece is sure to be adopted by a customer very soon! I like how they used both images and words in this work entitled "Go Robot."  Learn more about Scott at his website GhostsOfScottWhite.

After you've had a chance to check out some local art, be sure to check out the scenery. If you're near the front of the restaurant either inside or out, you can look across the street and through the park to see the lake. I saved the best for last. Not only can you get great healthy food here, but you can also sit outside and enjoy the your meal in a covered area. Rain or shine you can enjoy the fresh air, well at least as fresh as it can be alongside a street with occasional cars going by. And you can also enjoy the green plants in the eating area.

 

But that's not all that's right about this restaurant. They have three restrooms with signs on the door that say "bathroom." That makes so much sense! Other less efficient restaurants can learn from this. If the ladies room is locked at Chipotle or another restaurant where they label the doors "men" and "women," I often use the men's room because it's not an efficient use of any woman's time to wait for the women's room if the men's room is free! Yet so many obedient female customers do just this--they wait and wait and wait, and don't never complain to management! If you want to learn more about my restroom philosophy, check out my "Gotta Go" video on YouTube:

When I was planning my trip to Orlando, I thought about contacting owners Kelly or Laina in advance to see if I could interview them, but I didn't want my first experience to be swayed by people who have a vested interest in the business. I'm not even sure if they were in the restaurant for the majority of my time here, but I'm pretty sure they weren't there most of the time because I didn't see anyone who looked like them walking around the restaurant. 

That's even more points for this successful business--for their willingness to show their faces on the About page on their website and one more point for the fact that the customer experience is fabulous whether they're here or not.! I saw lots of happy customers coming and going and I didn't notice even one complaint or go-back! All the staff was friendly and you can learn more about them on the same About page. It's clear that the owners value their employees.

At most restaurants I have to search for ways to say more positive things than negative, but the opposite is true here. If I were to offer a few suggestions for improvement and potential for increasing profitability, here's what I'd say in order of priority: 

• Collaborate with a sustainable local greenscaper to improve the outdoor seating area by adding an enveloping, rejuvenating greenspace, perhaps even including some edibles.
• Offer consulting services to other locally owned healthful restaurants in Florida. You obviously have a tremendous scope of talents that other like-minded restaurant owners need.
• Open a second Ethos closer to a place with higher foot traffic, like St. Augustine please : )
• Set a goal to continuously increase your 50% organic food to higher percentages over time.
• Add more character and context to your restroom. When people are sitting around or standing in place for a minute or two, you have time to give them a message. Don't lose this opportunity.
• As it got dark, the track lighting on the ceiling felt a bit harsh--replace purple/redish bulbs with something less harsh. It distorted the color of the artwork after sunset. 
• Add free WiFi to the outdoor seating area.

Next time you're in Orlando, I highly recommend that you stop by here for at least one meal. I'm sure I'll be coming back!

Make It Easier to Save the Trees

When I see signs like this asking me to be green in one way or another, I'm very willing to comply.

So when I saw the sign I looked all around the restroom, but didn't see any hand dryers except for the paper dispenser in front of my face.

I didn't see anything near the water faucets or on the other walls in the room, so I pulled out a few paper towels and dried my hands. I put the paper towels in the garbage along with all the others, and then when I headed out of the restroom, I saw the hand dryers in the hallway. I didn't notice them on the way in because that wasn't the main thing on my mind at the time.

Are you with me here?

One of the first rules of good design is to keep things where they're going to be used most, and this is especially important in public places. I didn't even see the hand dryer until after I dried my hands. I wonder whose idea it was to install them around the corner in the hallway? McCarran needs to hire new restroom designers who understand the needs of travelers.

I was pulling luggage on wheels. The last thing I wanted to do was to grab my luggage with wet hands and start looking around for hand dryers. If this had been several years ago, I might have sent one of my kids off for this game of hide & seek.

The partially bubbled bumper sticker on the paper towel dispenser is a clue that the hand dryers were probably an afterthought, installed after management at the airport decided to take efforts to be more green. The bubbles in the bumper sticker also whisper out a lack of concern for quality by the person who installed it.

I suppose it's better to have the hand dryers in the hallway than not to have them at all. Maybe the employees know about them and use them. But they're sort of in the way in the hallway. Although there wasn't a line when I used the restroom, I'm sure the dryers are inconveniently placed if people are entering and exiting the restroom with luggage while some people are standing around drying their hands. This seems like it's designed to create a traffic jam.

If McCarran wanted to encourage people to use the hand dryers, they'd be the choice closest to the sinks. I just checked out the McCarran website and I didn't see anything on their "GREEN Initiatives." Since they screamed out "GREEN" on their bumper sticker, I thought they'd have a quick link to "GREEN Initiatives" on their website, but if it's there, I couldn't find it.

On a green design scale of 1-10, I give them a 3: one point for the bubbled bumper sticker, one point for installing the hand dryers and one more point for good luck next time I'm in Vegas.

If you're a member of the American Restroom Association or the World Toilet Organization can you please spread the word that McCarran might have a few underused hand dryers that they can donate to a good cause?

Interested in flying through greener airports? Plan your next trip around a long layover at one of the World's Ten Greenest Airports.

Got an airport story you want to share? Please leave a comment.

Starbucks and Target Are Good Places "To Go"

Ever get frustrated in a public restroom? You aren't the only one. Starbucks and Target are good places to go because they have in place excellent restroom policies and cleaning procedures. Despite their good intentions, however, you will LOL with these customer experiences.

Check out this "Gotta Go" video presented by Dr Lorraine Haataia at the Toastmasters International District 84 Division A Area 11 Humorous Speech Contest on September 24, 2009.

If you'd like to book Dr Lorraine for your next event, please contact her at www.DrLorraine.net. She's not always so funny. She's serious about helping businesses establish good policies and procedures that keep customers coming and going.

If you have other humorous public restroom stories you'd like to share, please leave a comment.

Shop and Go is a Clean Experience at Target

If you're out shopping and you need a restroom break, Target is a good place to stop.

Target's outstanding clean restroom policy and procedure is clearly posted for both employees and customers to see.  They really hit the bulls eye on this one. The policy sign posted for customers includes a literal "call to action," to call the team leader if the restroom is unacceptable. I wonder if this means I can call them about the little boy who looked up at me from under the next stall while his mother was busy talking on her cell phone? Nevermind, I was just kidding. Talking on cell phones probably makes shopping a more pleasant experience for moms.

The employee checklist entitled, "Restrooms are Clean," includes subheadings of "spotless, stocked and shiny." The form also provides two simple steps for employees to perform every hour: 1) check when the task is performed, and 2) press the call button when done to alert the manager that cleaning is complete. It's obvious that Target is serious about keeping their restrooms clean all day long.

At the Target in St. John's Town Center in Jacksonville, FL, on June 20, 2009, the restroom was clean and stocked. In no way does this guarantee that all Target restrooms on all days are as clean as this one, but you probably have a better shot at a clean restroom at a Target than at a nearby gas station.

So I'll give Target 7  points on a 10 point scale for their restroom policy and procedures. Here's how they could earn the extra three points in my book:

1. one more point if the restrooms had windows and/or more fresh air circulation and live plants.
2. one additional point if it included natural aromatherapy for clean nontoxic air.
3. one more point if they played pleasant jazz or instrumental music not only in the restroom, but throughout the store.

The red all over the store is a bit much and I think they can learn a few things from Walmart's newer energy-efficient stores with natural lighting in the ceiling. But this is just one customer's opinion.

Ten Great Reasons to Stall Your Advertising

Most people who see an advertisement in a restroom stall or urinal are likely to read it because they have at least a few seconds to spare and they're compelled to read just about anything in front of them, even graffiti.

In the image below you see several colorful examples from Midwest Indoor Advertising:

 

Here are ten reasons you should consider advertising in your restrooms (a.k.a. indoor advertising):

1. Entertain while building brand recognition.
2. Target men or women of specific age groups.
3. Hold audience captive for 30 seconds or more, longer than most other forms of advertising.
4. Get your message through to the young, the affluent, to those who are out spending.
5. Offer phone numbers, calendar events or web sites that people can enter directly into their PDA on the spot.
6. Reach specific geographic locations.
7. Provide compelling news or facts that motivate reader to take action.
8. Capture people when they don't mind taking the time to read, unlike telemarketing, web site pop-up windows, emails, and other less appealing forms of advertising.
9. Customize your ads to suit a number of target markets.
10. Utilize this cost-effective form of advertising in your restrooms even if you don't do it anywhere else.

If you're interested in finding an ad agency who can help you with indoor marketing, see IBAA's membership directory:
Indoor Billboard Advertising Association Membership Directory

Even if you don't have a big budget to advertise outside your business, consider placing ads for upcoming events or specials in your own restrooms. Kaibo Restaurant, Beach Bar and Marina at Rum Point in Grand Cayman hung framed cork boards on the back of their stall doors. Although they would look better if they were centered on the door, some signage is better than none. The off-center would, however, make more sense if the hooks were moved more to the right so that a hanging purse, beach bag or towel wouldn't cover the sign.

The font on the Kaibo sign below is too small. They should say less with bigger font and with more attractive graphics.

The small font on April Events Calendar from REI shown below could also minimize the impact of their message. It would make more sense to advertise specific events with eye-catching photos in the stalls and place a larger calendar someplace else where people can read all the details. It would also be easier to keep the calendar more updated where the past weeks rolled off and only the upcoming four weeks were shown. I took this photo on April 27, a time when most of the April events were obsolete.

If you aren't utilizing indoor advertising and need advice on designing a customer communication strategy for your business, contact Lorraine@DrLorraine.net.

If you have more ideas about best practices for indoor advertising, feel free to share your comments.

It's Good to Go Behind Swisher Hygiene

If you step into a restroom right after the Swisher guys have been there, you're probably going to have a pleasant visit.

Swisher's stickers are in many public restrooms that are cleaner than most. Not only are they good at swishing,  they're also good at driving. I don't know much about this company, but the more I notice the brand, the more I'm impressed I become.

This truck alone says a lot. They post an 800 number on the back  to keep their drivers accountable. If the employee really was driving crazy or speeding, it would probably make it hard to read the number to call it, but I just might call the number to let them know that the driver was responsible. Not many people take the time to report good news. I'm sure I could make someone's day and give them a story that they'd repeat for some time.

"Let me tell you a story about a happy lady who called," they'd say.

The logo is eye-catching and clever. You can tell this is a company that does something with lightning, curvy mountain roads or toilet flushing, but if you keep reading you get an extra hint through the website, www.SwisherHygiene.com. Those two words say a lot. It's smart.

Swisher offers customers a green hygiene option for customers who understand the value of using safer and more sustainable products. If they could figure out how to install aromatherapeutic ventilation systems in restrooms, I'd want to invest in them.

How Much Is Your Restroom Costing You?

On a recent visit to a doctor's office, I made a stop in the restroom. Here's what I saw--a bad sign! Someone in the office evidently thought it would be a good idea to put a basket of paper towels on top of the toilet tank. And the same person, or perhaps someone else, took the time to type, print and then tape a paper sign on the front of the toilet tank letting patients know they only wanted toilet paper in the toilet. The sign read:

Please...Only toilet paper should be placed in the toilet.

Are they serious? Where should I put the stuff I came in to get rid of? Now here's what makes the story even more interesting. They purchase the kind of towels that fold together, the kind that are meant for a towel dispenser, so that once you pull one out, the first fold of the next towel is cued up for taking, similar to the way a tissue box works.

I typically try to follow rules as much as possible, but when I pulled a paper towel to dry my hands, one more flipped over and fluttered right into the toilet. What a trap! Right about then I looked around the room to see if there was a hidden camera somewhere in the corner where someone was watching to see what I would do. Would I reach into the toilet and pull out the paper towel?

Well, I'm not quite that obedient. And by now, I've already decided they deserve a clogged toilet for setting up such a poor layout of the bathroom supplies. In the next picture you can see that they clearly have room for a towel dispenser closer to the sink.

In addition to making it easier to wash hands, it would also save the drips that end up on the toilet seat when people reach over the toilet with wet hands to get a paper towel. Don't you hate when you see a toilet with drips on the seat?

If you have a poorly designed restroom in your office or if you know of an organization who needs some help improving a restroom space, contact Dr Lorraine. I can help you set up a functional bathroom to meet your requirements and fit the theme of your organization. You may not think that your restrooms have much impact on your organization and you may not be thinking about other aspects of your environment that have an impact on the brand, image and impression that you deliver to your employees and customers.

Can you believe that a doctor would allow this in her office? One who knows much about the dangers of germs! The sign is dripping with germs, and advertises oversight on the part of the doctor and office manager.

If you'd like to learn more about bathroom ratings around the world, or provide your rating on a bathroom that you visited, see RestroomRatings.com.

Your customers and employees become more or less loyal based on the experiences they have with your organization. Why not take every opportunity to make a good impression and create a positive experience?

Toilet Paper Jam Passes Inspections

So let me tell you about the toilet paper in my Lago Mar room. The first time I tried to get some toilet paper, I found out that it didn't roll properly on the toilet paper holder. It's one of those upscale holders that has two independent decorative posts with a spring roll in the middle.

Whoever installed it placed the two posts so close that when you pull on the roll, it tears the toilet paper because the roll is jammed between the decorative posts. It makes for a roll of toilet paper that doesn't roll. The only way to get to the toilet paper was to unthread it. I didn't want to take a chance at ripping the holder off the wall by trying to remove the roll from the holder. Although it annoyed me for a moment, this isn't the sort of thing I (as their customer) would complain about--it wouldn't keep me up at night.

This is, however, an education and process issue that traces back to the person who hired the installer. The person who did the installation either didn't have instructions or if he did, he didn't follow them. And he may not have needed the instructions anyway if he had a lot of prior experience or training on proper installation of bathroom hardware. Even if the installer didn't have instructions, training or experience, the contractors final quality check, or punchlist should have included the mistake.

And that's not the end of it. If this happened in one hotel room, there's a good chance that it happened in ten, twenty, fifty, or maybe even in hundreds of rooms! People are quite predictable. If the installer used his good sense to do the install in my room, he probably used the same line of reasoning, right or wrong, to do others. If he was "on a roll" one day, he may have installed lots of these, which would only result in an equivalent or greater amount of rework, especially if the wallpaper had to be repaired.

The installer didn't catch the jam. The contractor didn't notice it. The resort facilities manager didn't require a change before offering the room to a customer and housekeeping didn't seem to do anything about it!

Although this is a small, seemingly irrelevant issue, it may be a symptom of a bigger problem:

• the contractor may not have good hiring and/or training practices in place,
• the manufacturer may not be providing adequate instructions or product design
• the resort may not be listening to housekeeping staff, the ones most likely to catch the problem, or
• the facilities manager may not have adequate vendor selection procedures in place.

If the contractor didn't have standards in place for something as simple as toilet paper rolls, could you trust him to work on your electric?

If you'd like to ensure that you have proper safeguards in place to ensure quality products and service, contact Dr. Lorraine for a consultation.