The size of your bathroom will depend on the seating capacity of your restaurant. Among authorities, there are two very different schools of thought on the location of toilets. One group thinks they should be located near the entrance, to ensure the company can freshen up before dinner; the other thinks they should be discreetly located at the back of the dining room. Do what you want. Realistically, the location of bathrooms is probably a function of exactly where the plumbing lines are, and they’re usually near the bar and/or kitchen.
The minimum restroom requirements based on the number of people inside your restaurant at any one time are outlined in city ordinances. The needs detail the number of toilets (the common legal name for cubicle toilets), urinals for men’s restrooms, and handwashing toilets (sinks). Within the western United States, most state or local codes are based on the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC); in the eastern United States, they are much more likely to rely on the International Plumbing Code (IPC); and there is also a National Standard Plumbing Code. An existing list of adopted codes by state can be found on the American Restroom Association website (www.americanrestroom.org). For the small business, with up to 50 seats, an area of 35 to 40 square feet may be the absolute minimum for a toilet and sink.
Lawson believes that a facility with up to 70 seats should allow for 75 to 80 square feet of restroom space. He also believes that the fancier the restaurant (the larger the studio average), the more spacious the bathrooms should be: one urinal for every 15 guests, for example. The ongoing debate in many jurisdictions includes a fancy name that creates a really real concern. “Toilet parity” is definitely a response to women’s frequent complaints that the number of toilets for female company is almost never enough, particularly in crowded, high-volume places.
While it is true that women spend much more time in the bathroom than men and expect enough space for a modicum of privacy, proponents of the IPC, which requires fewer fixtures for some situations than the UPC, call the parity concept of going toileting as a “fad” and say their code depends on research. Two additional legal necessities govern the bathroom. One is that, in most cities, places that serve alcoholic beverages must have separate bathrooms for men and women; unisex restrooms are generally not allowed when alcohol revenue exceeds 30 percent of total revenue.
The other, which we’ll discuss in more detail later, may be the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which mandates accessibility measures and space requirements to accommodate people with physical limitations.
It is advisable to have separate bathrooms for staff and clients; however, this is usually not possible. We have found that most restaurants with separate staff restrooms provide 30-40 square foot unisex facilities with 1 toilet and 1 sink.
