The absolute smallest, cheapest room available is a two story suite.
Move over Las Vegas, the new new standard for resort luxury, grandiosity and audaciousness is now in Dubai. It is there, on an artificial island just off the coast, that you’ll find the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab. It is the world’s tallest hotel. And that’s only one of the world records it holds.
The Burj Al Arab is also home to the world’s fastest elevators, the world’s tallest atrium and largest aquarium. No other building in the world incorporates as much gold (the 2,000 square meters or 21,500 square feet of gold leaf!) and no other hotel has earned a seven star rating.
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Visitors to Taipei who happen to enter the D.S. Music Restaurant expecting to find an elegant place to eat, perhaps with a jazz band playing gently in the background, are in for a shock.
Their first hint that something is amiss might be the waitstaff: they are all wearing nurse uniforms. And then these confused visitors would see that the medical theme extends to the restaurant’s decor of wheelchairs and crutches, to the toilets marked with “emergency room” signs and to the drinks served from I.V. bottles.
And from there, things really get out of control.
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Oh, if you are wondering, each Modern Toilet restaurant does have proper bathrooms. They are very well marked to prevent patrons from making the horrible mistake.
We can’t imagine the marketing meeting during which some one pitches the concept for a toilet-themed restaurant . . . and the others in the meeting agreeing that it’s a good idea. And yet presumably such a meeting has happened. More than once. There are at least 20 (!) restaurants on planet Earth where toilets, urinals and potty talk are the central attraction. Five of those have opened in 2008 alone and at least ten more are planned for 2009, most in either China or Taiwan.
Let’s get you going with an overview of some of the world’s crappy dinning experiences in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany and Portugal . . .
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Seriously, this place specializes in milk and cookies. It’s no $100 per entrée hot spot playing “the irony angle,” it’s a café that has found a niche in a city where it seemed that all of the niches had been taken ten times over. Of course, no one pulls off this kind of coupe with store-bought Oreos. This place makes their own type of Oreo with chewy Valrhona chocolate and a homemade cream filling. Coolest of all, this bakery also lets customers create their own cookies — you select from their myriad of ingredient possibilities and they’ll bake up your creation in 20 minutes ($19/dozen). No wonder this place is a favorite for the West Village’s young at heart . . . and their inner-children.
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Most of the people who religiously played Centipede, Mario Bros. and Frogger did so when they were too young to drink. Good news. Times have changed, but the games remain the same. At this slightly out of the way former warehouse, friendly and grungy locals jingle all the way through the long room with pockets full of quarters. Surprisingly the hip space attracts an even numbers of men and women and while playing video games may seem anti-social, the flashing screens are a distant background for those crowded around the bar.
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LA’s first power plant is one of its latest hot spots. When The Edison Bar moved into a 1910 building near Harlem Place Alley in downtown L.A. it left much of the infrastructure there intact, including the original boiler, power turbines and much of the piping. Around that industrial facade went mood lighting, low-slung bar, atmospheric dance floor and lots of plush nook for eating, socializing and romancing. The result is beyond cool. Come prepared to stand in line and dress to impress — bouncers won’t let you in wearing hats, sneakers or athletic wear.
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And what exactly “accompanies” peanut butter? How about more types of milk than most cows would even consider possible? They serve soy, rice and Lactaid milk here at this dinner that specializes in variations of PB and J. The drinks here are all non-alcohol so while diners won’t have to worry about pairing their Nutella with the right wine, choosing the appropriate beverage for tongue-stuck-to-roof-of-mouth- syndrome is of the essence. The very small place is fun if nothing else, and you’re sure to be in and out in a “jiffy.”
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