Call of Dooty: New app lets Charlotte poopers rate public bathroom cleanliness
It’s not something people like to talk about, but it happens to everyone.
You’re out running errands in Charlotte when your body gives you a sudden, urgent reminder. Home is too far. Time is short. You start looking at nearby stores — not for sales, but for salvation.
You pick one, walk in and head straight to the restroom – only to find it in rough shape. The toilet looks suspect. The sink isn’t much better. You start questioning your choice.
Now, there’s an app meant to help you avoid that situation altogether.
Enter, DootyCall – a tool that helps you answer nature’s call before it becomes a code brown.
Where the idea first dropped
DootyCall creator and Charlotte native Colin Silvia told CharlotteFive the app was born “out of frustration.”
Silvia, who has a background in door-to-door sales that required frequent travel, said long days knocking on doors often came with a familiar problem: finding a decent place to go.
“One time we were just like, ‘Dude, why isn’t there something where people help each other out? Some kind of bathroom app that tells you whether it’s good, if it’s safe, and if it’s got things that you need,’” Silvia said.
The emphasis on safety came after conversations with his sisters, who told him they often struggle to find public restrooms where they feel comfortable.
“You wouldn’t want your mom, your girlfriend or your daughter feeling unsafe,” he said. “That opened up a whole new way of going about this.”
Silvia said Charlotte is the ideal launch city because of its rapid growth and engaged community, adding that he hopes locals will help shape the platform by offering feedback and reviews.
“This is a free platform. We’re not trying to sell people or make them pay. We want this to be a community-driven, Charlotte-based app,” Silvia said. “It’s fast-growing, it’s young, a lot of people are commuting — it’s a great place to test this.”
“This is a dream, and it’s been so cool to see people in Charlotte really get behind it.”
A fecal fellowship
In his videos on TikTok, Silvia, on a quest to “tear up toilets in Charlotte so you know where to go,” invites viewers to “come take a s***” with him at various public bathrooms around the city.
He recently visited a “questionable” Bojangles location just outside of uptown that received many one-star reviews on his app, where he advised viewers to “brace for impact” before revealing the bathroom’s condition.
“There was a passcode to get in here, so I expected it to be good, but this place was a total wreck,” Silvia said in the video. “There was s*** everywhere, and I’m pretty sure I walked in to see s*** on the actual toilet seat.”
Despite the restroom’s uncleanliness, Silvia “layered up” – a term he used to describe the common practice of putting toilet paper on the toilet seat, providing a barrier between it and your rear end – and proceeded to relieve himself.
Silvia did give a positive review for the amount of space he had in the stall where he did his business, calling it the “clutchest part” of the experience. He also commended the restaurant staff for providing toilet paper that “wasn’t that bad” before criticizing the bathroom’s malfunctioning sink.
In another video that has garnered nearly 60,000 views on TikTok, Silvia visited what he called the “famous two-story McDonald’s across the street from SouthPark,” declaring he had “walked into paradise.”
“Obviously we’d all prefer to s*** at home, but this one felt like I was home,” Silvia said in the video. “This one was special. I felt like I was sitting on a throne. I had all the leg space to make sure I could get the job done, and the toilet paper honestly didn’t miss.”
At one point, Silvia is seen sweeping the bathroom floor with a broom and dustpan, calling it “the least” he could do after “absolutely tearing it up.”
“It was definitely a good s***ter in a really cool spot,” he added.
How to use DootyCall
To use the app, you can visit DootyCall.com, enter your email, then create a username and password.
Once you do, you’ll be able to see an interactive map of public toilets all over Charlotte, along with their star ratings and reviews from other users.
Users can earn “DootyCoins” by leaving bathroom reviews, uploading photos of bathrooms and logging into the app daily, which they’ll later be able to use to redeem for gift and gas cards, Silvia said. The app also lets users save their favorite public lavatories for easy access.
“The more you help build this with us, the more coins you get,” Silvia said. “We really want to incentivize people.”
Reviews from users tend to vary. Positive ones often include comments on the bathroom’s upkeep and information about any bathroom attendants that may be present.
For example, the bathroom inside the Bank of America Tower in uptown has a perfect five-star rating on the app, with one user calling it a “very nice corporate bathroom” with “someone inside cleaning it and offering mints and mouthwash.”
Other restrooms, however, didn’t quite measure up in the number-two department.
A Sam’s Mart location just outside of uptown got a one-star rating, with a user saying he “wouldn’t wish my worst enemy to take a dump here.”
Silvia said he hopes to launch DootyCall in the Apple and Android app stores within the next few weeks.
From there, he plans to expand across North Carolina before targeting major metro areas in Florida, Texas, New York and beyond.
“We’re really trying to push it strong,” said Silvia. “It’s going to blow up.”
Do you have a go-to bathroom in Charlotte – or one you’d never go back to? I want to hear about it! Send me an email with your favorite (or least favorite) public bathroom in the city at emoore@charlotteobserver.com.
