Remembering the Men’s Room at Finger’s Restaurant
This will probably be the strangest blog you will read today, but if you are from Grand Rapids and visited the old Finger's Restaurant back in the day, you will absolutely know what I am writing about -- especially the men.
I have spent years searching out weird places to visit while traveling. Things like the World's Largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville, IL; the Barbed Wire Museum in McLean, TX; and even the National Museum of Funeral History in Houston, TX.
One of the coolest things I remember here in the Grand Rapids area, back in the 80s, was the men's rest room at Finger's Restaurant.
Finger's was located on Coit Avenue, just off of Plainfield Avenue. It was founded in 1946 by Paul and Helen Finger and they were known for their great family-style chicken dinners. (In a post a year ago, Andy Rent found the recipe for that chicken)
What I remember most though, was the men's restroom...
It wasn't just your typical bathroom. Instead, when you walked in the door you'd see a few sit down stalls, but no urinals (which are usually pretty common in a men's restroom). In place of the typical, white porcelain urinal was a wall of stacked rocks that had water running down it. THAT was the urinal!
The very first time I used that bathroom at Finger's I was the only person in the room and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Was that where I was supposed to relieve myself? It almost felt like I was peeing someplace I shouldn't be.
The restroom was a popular place for the women too. Often when coming out of the bathroom you would find a woman who would ask if she could peek inside and see the stone urinal wall. The restaurant also sold postcards that featured the men's bathroom! (I have one of those postcards in a box somewhere.)
The restaurant closed sometime in the 90s after over 50 years of operation. Some will remember it for the chicken dinners...and some of us men will remember it for it's wall in the bathroom!