Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — A public park and a boutique hotel are battling it out to be named home of the best bathroom in the nation.
Bryant Park's flower-filled lavatory and The Muse Hotel's Seven Deadly Sins-themed restrooms are among the ten finalists in this year's annual "America's Best Restroom" awards, which honor the country's most creative public porcelain thrones.
Voting for the competition, which is now in its ninth year, is set to close Tuesday at midnight, with the winner announced in Mid-September.
Lindsey Boylan, operations manager at Bryant Park, said staffers were thrilled with the nomination.
"We spend a great deal of time and energy keeping it up and it's great to finally be recognized," she said, noting the giant bouquet of fresh flowers in the doorway and aromatic oils used to make the restroom feel more like home.
"I’ll vote for it!" said Gladys Bruun, 73, a tourist from Quebec, Canada who was struck by how clean the restrooms were.
The facilities see 500 to 1,000 users on a typical weekday, and as many as 12,000 during events, bathroom attendant Diane Hunter, 47, said.
Todd Butts, 31, visiting from San Diego, said the bathroom would get his vote, too.
"It's cleaner. It smells good. And I don’t think I've ever seen flowers in a public restroom before," he said.
Survey editor Sabrina Zimring said the group's goal is not to find the most elaborate bathrooms, but the ones where owners have made the best use of the space they have. Past honorees have included everything from five-star hotels to ballparks to grocery stores.
So far this year, the survey has received tens of thousands of votes, Zimring said.
Also in the running for America's potty crown is the upscale Muse Hotel on West 46th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, just five minutes north of the park.
The creative restroom has seven unisex stalls, each of which is designed based on a variant of the Seven Deadly Sins. "Macho," for instance, has a heavy sink basin and a pair of antlers mounted above the bowl, while "Envy" glows green.
"Everybody loves to look at the bathrooms," said attendant Fabiola Goldstein, 39. "We like to give people tours."
New York is the only city and state in the country with two restrooms in the running.
Also in the top ten are bathrooms at the China Grill at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the Lawrence Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kansas and the space-age Fountain on Locust vintage ice cream parlor in St. Louis, Missouri.
But Hunter said she's keeping her fingers crossed.
"It's great to know we're doing a good job," she said. "I really hope we win."
Cast your vote here.
