Tuesday, February 14, 2012 — Cloudy -1°C
Eat & Drink

The best hand dryer in the city of Toronto

Posted by Matt / January 12, 2007

18 Comments

20070112_handdryer.jpg

Bad hand dryers are my main pet peeve. I'm all for eco-friendliness, but there are few things more irritating in the world than washing your hands in a public washroom and then spending five minutes trying to dry them (and failing to do so) under a hand dryer that has the equivalent force of a ninety-year-old blowing out a birthday cake.

That's why the hand dryer in the washroom at Tortilla Flats is literally the best thing that happened to me all week. Look what it's doing to my hands! Those aren't wrinkles, my friends; that's skin being pushed by the sheer force of the air current coming out of this jet-turbine-strength hand dryer.

The noise this sucker makes is so enormous that it's possible the water wasn't dried off my hands, but rather scared off my hands.

Award for worst hand dryer in the city, incidentally, goes to the pair of useless gizmos in the mens' room at the Paramount at Richmond and John. I can - and have - dried my hands faster by holding them out in the sun.

Tortilla Flats and its awesome hand dryer are located at 458 Queen Street West, at Queen and Augusta, across from a KFC whose hand dryer has yet to be tested.

Discussion

18 Comments

Sort By Oldest First / Newest First

Subscribe

Jerrold / January 12, 2007 at 09:41 am
user-pic
Lollerssssskates :) Hilarious post, Matt!
Reply
tony / January 12, 2007 at 09:50 am
user-pic
there is another hand-dryer of particular fortitude worth noting:
Men's washroom upstairs at O'Grady's pub in the Gay Village on Church St. at Maitland, just south of Wellesley. it makes hand washing fun! (and it's so loud you can tell who has washed their hands and who hasn't! fun!)
Reply
Matt / January 12, 2007 at 09:55 am
user-pic
Yeah Tony, I think I know that one too... it's pretty formidable. But the Tortilla Flats one damn near knocked me outta the room. :)
Reply
Steve / January 12, 2007 at 10:00 am
user-pic
This is soooooo weird...I just finished reading "Tortilla Flat" by John Steinbeck. "Mulder, just because you read the book and then someone mentioned a restaurant with that name in a blog doesn't mean anything". "Scully, how can you say that, it's all there, the tortilla, the flat, the book...what if I said two days ago, a woman in Salinas, California claimed she saw a UFO shaped like a quesadilla...are you gonna tell me this isn't all somehow related? Hey, You feel like mexican for lunch?" "Mulder, we're in Thailand".
Reply
Chester Pape / January 12, 2007 at 10:29 am
user-pic
Also at St. Louis on Yonge.

Still doesn't change the fact that these things have a tendancy to aeresolize and distribute contaminants.
Reply
/ January 12, 2007 at 10:35 am
user-pic
Perhaps it comes from headquarters, because the O'Grady's on College and Beverly has the blowing-est hand dryers I ever did see
Reply
Dan Dickinson / January 12, 2007 at 10:38 am
user-pic
Only other place I've ever seen that hand-rippling force: Champlain Place in Moncton NB. The hand dryers could destroy a trailer park.
Reply
Jerrold / January 12, 2007 at 10:39 am
user-pic
This discussion is totally what I love about blogs... so good!
Reply
Carly Beath / January 12, 2007 at 10:59 am
user-pic
Does it happen to have a picture of huskies on it and is called something ridiculous like the Xcelorator? We had one in the campus pub bathroom at Laurier and it was amazing. It'd blow the hand stamp right off your skin.
Reply
Matt / January 12, 2007 at 11:15 am
user-pic
"It'd blow the hand stamp right off your skin"... BEST. LINE. EVER.
Reply
Shawn Micallef / January 12, 2007 at 11:33 am
user-pic
The jet-turbine powered hand dryer at O'Grady's on church was there when the place was Wilde Oscars too, if I remember. Which I do, because bad hand dryers is a sign of poor management. The hand dryers at some 401 reststops between here and Windsor are also anemic. One's sense of injustice is heightened with damp hands.

Though Tortilla Flats, between it and Sneaky Dees, they're putting a generation of Torontonians into an early grave with greasy bad food.
Reply
Tanja / January 12, 2007 at 12:47 pm
user-pic
These are amazing. I first encountered the "Xcelerator" in Boston in 2003 and was amazed. The ladies in the bathroom were equally impressed at the time, some washing their hands TWICE just to insta-dry them again. I think of it every time I reach for a damp door handle *EW*.
Reply
Matt / January 12, 2007 at 02:06 pm
user-pic
I must see one of these "Xcelerators" you speak of. Though I may end up enjoying myself a bit too much.
Reply
Carrie / January 12, 2007 at 02:49 pm
user-pic
I was also going to mention St. Louis at Yonge north of Davisville. However, it sounds like a jumbo jet engine.
Reply
Alex / January 13, 2007 at 12:28 am
user-pic
It's pretty amusing watching your skin wrinkle under that jet engine, especially after you had couple of "woblly pops" :o
Reply
DanielN / January 15, 2007 at 01:13 pm
user-pic
When I saw the title of this post I immediately thought of the Hand Dryer at Still Lounge, which is now Tortilla Flats. By far the only reason to go to Tortilla Flats, that thing is amazing. The best part though, is that it becomes conversation everytime I was at Still. You just had to mention it to the people you were with and anyone that hadn't experienced it would most definitely bring it up after returning from the bathroom.
Reply
Cassandra / January 23, 2007 at 03:52 pm
user-pic
I can also attest to the amazingly loud, gale force winds blown out of the St. Louis hand dryers. The first time I heard one, I had accidentally leaned into the machine on the way to the sink. Damn thing nearly knocked me over. I think I actually screamed. It *will* dry your hands, however. Dry them good.
Reply
agustin / March 2, 2007 at 11:41 am
user-pic
I want to get some for the company, I work in Firmenich but, we don?t kow if there are a sales office here in Mexico.
Somebody knows?????
Reply

Add a Comment
Other Cities: Vancouver – Montreal