Poop-themed dessert bar—yes, really—opens in Toronto this month

As they say, sh*t happens. And it'll soon be all over our Instagram feeds when Poop Café — the second dessert bar of its kind in North America — opens in Toronto later this month.

The café, complete with toilets for seats, poop-emoji murals and urinal-shaped dishes, will be serving up a variety of brown desserts, in an effort to “make poop cute”, owner Lien Nguyen explained recently to the Toronto Star.

The menu will feature mainly Asian desserts, with trendy Thai ice cream rolls, Hong Kong waffles and Korean patbingsoo (red beans and ice) all crafted into cartoonish takes on number two. Nguyen recently clarified that the café will offer other options: “We will have a unique selection of desserts from around the world. Not every item will be brown or resemble feces.”

Similar establishments exist around the world, mainly in Russia and across Asia. But it was Taiwan’s Modern Toilet, which opened in 2004, that inspired Nguyen, a culinary management graduate, to start her own (bowel) movement. “We checked out a toilet-themed restaurant and I just loved it,” she told the Star. “It stayed in my mind for a long time. As soon as I finished school, I said, ‘OK, I’m going to bring the restaurant to Toronto.’”

The themed café won’t be the first of its kind here, but Nguyen hopes it'll be the first successful one. (LA’s Magic Restroom Café, an expansion of Modern Toilet, only lasted eight months back in 2014.) While the opening date isn't finalized, Nguyen aims to be up and running by the end of August.