My go to in Manhattan is just to walk into the nearest big hotel like you’re a guest and find the restroom off the lobby.

This works in pretty much any American city.

If anything, you have to be careful with this in New York specifically, because some of the little boutique hotels have tiny lobbies that don't have a bathroom. Make sure to go for a big brand-name hotel.

The outer boroughs are trickier, but I've found that McDonald's and KFC generally have open bathrooms. And gas stations with attached convenience stores, which do exist in Queens.

Nice restaurants were also a good place to go because they had good customer service habits. Any bar or places that serves alcohol has to have a bathroom.

In NYC iirc, 20 seats or more and built before 1970 or so also required it. I looked this up once after getting sick of being told there was no bathroom at places that seemed likely to be lying.

I tried to sneak in a restaurant to use the bathroom but couldn’t. I used a bathroom in a bar once.

Your mistake was acting sneaky.

Also some restaurants say “customers only”.

As a tourist, I didn’t know this. Will try this next time. I was wondering if I should pay tips or not in that case.

Unless there’s a bathroom attendant you’re just ignored. Tips wouldn’t be necessary.

That also works well in San Francisco.

Really? Should I call it as Pee Francisco?

My local one doesn't allow customers in the bathroom unless they buy something. Are there ones that don't?

At a corporate level there was an open bathroom policy instituted a few years back [0]. I’m not aware of that changing but I’m also not surprised that a local outlet might not comply with that policy.

0: https://people.com/food/starbucks-bathroom-policy-change-arr...

TIL they changed this policy.

Used to be the bathroom had a PIN lock, and the PIN was printed on your receipt. (I assumed it rotated regularly)

I’ve only seen this in areas with a bit of a homeless issue. Even then just ask the barista for the code.

You can always say you’re waiting for a phone order. But I can’t say I’ve ever been asked.

I went to a bar to use the bathroom and ordered an orange juice. The orange juice made me want to pee again in the NY train and had a nightmare on the way home. You can guess what happened lol

How recently did you check? There was a debacle in the past year or two and I think the policy changed.

Some Starbucks does not have a bathroom especially in NY. Also we don’t want to drink when we want to pee.

Most Starbucks around here closed their bathrooms for the pandemic.

Yes they did. Even Macdonald also closed them. I was asked to pee around the counter by a staff at a street shop.

This is a top-notch comment.