Cooperage Wine & Whiskey Bar
123 S 7th Street Philadelphia, PA 19106
Welcome to the first installment of the Broad Street Beat's Restroom Review, our new weekly (although admittedly we'll probably get lazy and it'll eventually become monthly) column that reviews the bathrooms at your favorite bars all across Philadelphia. Everyone has to relieve yourself, and a good or bad bathroom can significantly impact your trip to a bar. As far as we know, no one has been reviewing bathrooms, so we're here to benefit you, the typical Philadelphia drunkard.
Our first review takes us to Old City, a part of the city with no shortage of great bars, one of them being Cooperage. Coop, as it's affectionately called by the locals, anchors the historic Curtis Center and specializes in wine and whiskey, though there is no shortage of craft beers on tap, with a revolving selection that changes every week. Have to give a nod to the bartenders too. They're very knowledgable and could talk your ear off about whiskey if you'd like. But you aren't here for a review of the bar, you're here for the restrooms, so with out further adieu...
Our restrooms are graded on a 5 point scale, with each category having a maximum possible 2 points. A perfect 2 in each category will net the bathroom a 10. The 5 categories are Accessibility, Privacy, Cleanliness, Ambience & Intangibles.
Accessibility 1/2
Cooperage's bathrooms are tucked behind the bar. There are 2 toilets in total, each in a separate room. Two isn't a huge amount of toilets, but Cooperage is not a super large bar so two can definitely work. We can't give Cooperage a zero for Accessibility, because there's typically not a line for the bathrooms, but we also can't hand out a perfect score when there's bars out there that have individual bathrooms numbering over 10. Pro tip: If you seriously can't wait and both rooms are occupado there are public restroom in the atrium of the Curtis Center.
Privacy 2/2
Privacy is certainly no issue when there is only one toilet in each room and the doors lock. That's really all a bar needs to have to get their bathrooms a perfect privacy score.
Cleanliness 2/2
Cooperage's bathrooms are by far some of the cleanest we've ever seen. The fancy soap dispenser never has dried-on soap around it and the sink handles are shiny enough you could see your reflection. Need to go a little further and for relief and take a #2? Have no fear, the toilets are super clean and we would not worry one bit about sitting down. Just be courteous and don't take too long since, like we said, there's only 2 bathrooms.
Ambience 2/2
Sometimes a bathroom is an afterthought for a bar, just a generic room to pee. Not at Cooperage. You can tell whoever they tasked with decorating their bathrooms had a lot of fun doing it. The wallpaper is a trippy black-and-gold New York motif, complete with parking meters, fire hydrants, rats & pigeons. Gives you something to look at while you do your business. The mirror is the bottom of a barrel, which makes sense for the establishment, given that Cooperage is the art of making barrels. There's also a rustic looking cabinet in the corner with extra toilet paper. (So generous!)
Intangibles 1/2
Every restroom starts with a one for intangibles and it's on them to either strive for greatness and earn a 2, or fuck up so badly that they get a 0. Cooperage didn't really have anything out of the ordinary to make it jump, but we do give them credit for having paper towels (place in a basket on top of the aforementioned cabinet) and not a hand dryer. Hand dryers with no paper towels are a surefire way to lose points. Show me someone who actually prefers the hand dryer to the paper towel (aside from environmentalists I guess) and I'll show you a future serial killer.
TOTAL SCORE: 8
There you have it. Cooperage earns an 8 out of 10 for their bathrooms, a very good score indeed. Next up we've got a bar in Rittenhouse coming your way. Check back next weekend to find out which one.
Our first review takes us to Old City, a part of the city with no shortage of great bars, one of them being Cooperage. Coop, as it's affectionately called by the locals, anchors the historic Curtis Center and specializes in wine and whiskey, though there is no shortage of craft beers on tap, with a revolving selection that changes every week. Have to give a nod to the bartenders too. They're very knowledgable and could talk your ear off about whiskey if you'd like. But you aren't here for a review of the bar, you're here for the restrooms, so with out further adieu...
Our restrooms are graded on a 5 point scale, with each category having a maximum possible 2 points. A perfect 2 in each category will net the bathroom a 10. The 5 categories are Accessibility, Privacy, Cleanliness, Ambience & Intangibles.
Accessibility 1/2
Cooperage's bathrooms are tucked behind the bar. There are 2 toilets in total, each in a separate room. Two isn't a huge amount of toilets, but Cooperage is not a super large bar so two can definitely work. We can't give Cooperage a zero for Accessibility, because there's typically not a line for the bathrooms, but we also can't hand out a perfect score when there's bars out there that have individual bathrooms numbering over 10. Pro tip: If you seriously can't wait and both rooms are occupado there are public restroom in the atrium of the Curtis Center.
Privacy 2/2
Privacy is certainly no issue when there is only one toilet in each room and the doors lock. That's really all a bar needs to have to get their bathrooms a perfect privacy score.
Cleanliness 2/2
Cooperage's bathrooms are by far some of the cleanest we've ever seen. The fancy soap dispenser never has dried-on soap around it and the sink handles are shiny enough you could see your reflection. Need to go a little further and for relief and take a #2? Have no fear, the toilets are super clean and we would not worry one bit about sitting down. Just be courteous and don't take too long since, like we said, there's only 2 bathrooms.
Ambience 2/2
Sometimes a bathroom is an afterthought for a bar, just a generic room to pee. Not at Cooperage. You can tell whoever they tasked with decorating their bathrooms had a lot of fun doing it. The wallpaper is a trippy black-and-gold New York motif, complete with parking meters, fire hydrants, rats & pigeons. Gives you something to look at while you do your business. The mirror is the bottom of a barrel, which makes sense for the establishment, given that Cooperage is the art of making barrels. There's also a rustic looking cabinet in the corner with extra toilet paper. (So generous!)
Intangibles 1/2
Every restroom starts with a one for intangibles and it's on them to either strive for greatness and earn a 2, or fuck up so badly that they get a 0. Cooperage didn't really have anything out of the ordinary to make it jump, but we do give them credit for having paper towels (place in a basket on top of the aforementioned cabinet) and not a hand dryer. Hand dryers with no paper towels are a surefire way to lose points. Show me someone who actually prefers the hand dryer to the paper towel (aside from environmentalists I guess) and I'll show you a future serial killer.
TOTAL SCORE: 8
There you have it. Cooperage earns an 8 out of 10 for their bathrooms, a very good score indeed. Next up we've got a bar in Rittenhouse coming your way. Check back next weekend to find out which one.
