Washing your hands. An essential, though not usually a memorable, part of dining out. But some local eateries are making the hygiene experience a little greener and a lot faster by installing Dyson Airblade hand dryers. The company estimates that 22 people can dry their hands with one of these suckers for the price of one paper towel. And it takes just 12 seconds to get those hands dry, instead of the achingly slow 27 seconds the process can take with your run-of-the-mill hand dryer. Dyson describes the technology as “400-mph sheets of air literally scraping hands dry.” Sounds scary, but it feels like sticking your hands into tiny wind tunnels, and it doesn’t hurt a bit. The restrooms at Schlafly Bottleworks and The Schlafly Tap Room are sporting Airblades, and the second Pi, set to open Sept. 9 in Kirkwood, will have one as well.
– Matt Sorrell
This article appears in Aug 1-31, 2009.