No Bottled Water in Mario Batali's New York Restaurant
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.30.07
serving tap water in Chez Panise Jim Wilson/The New York Times
We have previously noted that Chez Panisse had banned the bottle, and San Francisco restaurant Incanto followed, saying “Serving our local water in reusable carafes makes more sense for the environment than manufacturing thousands of single-use glass bottles for someone to use once and throw away.” Now the trend has moved east to New York, where according to the New York Times: Del Posto,the most elegant and expensive of the restaurants in the empire of Joseph Bastianich and Mario Batali, will be joining the nascent movement — once they decide on the proper containers for their filtered still and carbonated tap water. Etched on the glass will be an explanation of why bottled water is no longer available.
“Filling cargo ships with water and sending it hundreds and thousands of miles to get it around the world seems ridiculous,” Mr. Bastianich said. “With all the other things we do for sustainability, it makes sense.”
A lot of restaurants like to push bottled water- it is profitable. The Times notes: there’s a big profit in bottled water, even though some of it comes out of a tap before it goes into the bottle. Restaurants buy it for $1 or $2 and sell it for as much as $8, or even more, giving it the highest markup of any item on the menu.
“The rationale for buying bottled water is a fantasy that has a destructive downside,” Dr. Solomon [of the Natural Resources Defense Council] said. “These companies are marketing an illusion of environmental purity.”
Her organization has calculated how much carbon dioxide — a major greenhouse gas — is emitted during the transportation of bottled water imported from France and Italy, the two largest exporters to the United States, and Fiji water, which travels much farther. Together they account for 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent, Dr. Solomon said, of the yearly emissions from 700 cars on the road. She called that “a significant contribution to global warming, and fundamentally an unnecessary one.” ::New York Times
Remember, you can just say no to bottled water.
Not to mention NYC has some of the purest and tastiest tap water in the world.
Tasty tap water? Come on. These idiots are charging so much for their food and liquor, they can afford a real filter that will remove all the crap the city puts in to 'clean' it.
perhaps you should learn a bit more about the tap/bottled water.
I know restaurants aren't required to serve free tap water but is there any exception once you've bought something? Maybe it's the restaurant's personal preference but i always thought if you buy something they'll give you a cup of water. I recently was denied this at a pizza place- after spending what cash i had on a pizza i didn't have enough for a bottle and i started to panic because i was really dehydrated from the heat/humidity. I finally used the tap from the bathroom. When i asked the manager his reasoning he said it gets too messy, they've tried it before and people spill their water all over the floor?? It's a college town so maybe they did have a problem but i'd like to hear a credible source tell me what's legal.