It’s a classic Saturday-night routine:You dress up, hit the town with your girls, have a few cocktails and then head to the bathroom for pics. Bars with the best backdrops become hot-spots for folks that want to capture a night they won’t remember, with the people they’ll never forget. From Quarters’ neon-lit room, Lake Effect’s bubble gum rococo photo-op and Thieves Guild’s green lantern-lit water closet and dragon statues—these Salt Lake bars take the art of bathroom design seriously.
Lake Effect
This swanky cocktail joint is best known for live music, reality TV star spottings and late-night revelry in their lower-level speakeasy. But the crowning jewel of Lake Effect is safely stashed upstairs, away from spill-prone tipplers and those otherwise unworthy of its divine opulence. Church is Lake Effect’s private event space, aptly adorned with cathedral arches, marble columns and a luminescent rose quartz bartop. The ladies’ powder room evokes a Versailles-level of detail, where inside, scallop-edged crystal basins and brass swan faucets are topped by neoclassical mirrors. Blush tones wrap the room head to toe, and the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the adjoining vanity room beckons a pursed lip selfie…or 10.
When You Go: 155 W. 200 South, SLC
Thieves Guild
You don’t have to roll a D20 charisma check to see that the bathrooms at Thieves Guild break from the usual gamer-bar mold. The Central 9th cidery is Salt Lake’s only fantasy-themed tavern, described by owners Jordy Kirkman and Max Knudsen as “chaotic wizard maximalism.” The sword and sorcery decor carries into the water closets, dimly lit by green lanterns and blue geode formations jutting out from the walls. Ask nicely enough and the Thieves Guild DMs might even loan you a few props for your medieval photoshoot.
When You Go: 117 W. 900 South, SLC
Photos by Adam Finkle.
Quarters Arcade Bar, Downtown
A Salt Lake bar bathroom roundup would lose all credibility without mention of the women’s restroom inside Quarters’ downtown location. It’s a right of passage to visit the neon-lit sanctuary after a few La Croix Bois and pinball losses. Inside, the social boundaries between strangers fall away as ladies of all kinds share lip combos, dating advice and pay respects to the omnipresent humming mantra above that reminds: “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”
When You Go: 5 E. 400 South, SLC
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