Drought

[Wilfrid]

I tell you right now, if any restaurant refuses to serve me tap water, I am walking out.   That raises it from the harmlessly nutty to the obnoxiously intrusive.

[tommy]

I tell you right now, if any restaurant refuses to serve me tap water, I am walking out.   That raises it from the harmlessly nutty to the obnoxiously intrusive.

absolutely.  but i'd make sure i tell the manager that i'm going to the restroom and that i'm flushing the toilet 3 times.  at a gallon a piece, they just lost all of the conservation they would have had for the entire night.  well, almost anyway.

[Wilfrid]

I would also like to know where they are getting all their ice cubes, goddammit!

[Wilfrid]

Enough shilly-shallying, I have just e-mailed BR Guest to ask them what the blazes they are playing at, thusly:

"It has been reported that BR Guest is refusing to serve tap water in its restaurants as a response to the threatened drought:

http://www.dailycandy.com/candy/article.js...Id=18145&city=1

Could you confirm this is accurate.  If so, how would you respond to the following:

Are you still making ice cubes from tap water?  Any restrictions on these?

Are you monitoring use of tap water in the kitchens, for cooking, cleaning and washing up purposes?

Have you considered the amount of water used when a customer uses the bathroom, and compared this with how many glasses of tap water you might serve in a typical evening?

Given the above, how would you respond to the suggestion that the policy will do no more than boost your bottled water sales, even at the reduced price?

Please let me know if any replies are off the record.  Thanks."

Let's see what they say!

[macrosan]

I would also like to know where they are getting all their ice cubes, goddammit!

Of course, Wilfrid, you're assuming they are using water to make ice cubes

[Ron Johnson]

Ice cubes are now being made from Evian, so they not only taste like soil, but are also 5 bucks apiece.  Now I bring my own wine, water, and a bag of ice.  Yes, I am the one walking through Manhattan with a cooler.

[Wilfrid]

Don't tell me they're putting Evian cubes in the tap water, Ron.  This whole H2O business is wacko.  I'm sticking with the hard stuff.

[tommy]

i invite everyone over to my house, so that you may all pee in my pool.  every drop counts.  if i'm not home, please leave a (biodegradable) plastic bottle filled with urine on the porch.

thank you.

regards,

tommy

[Wilfrid]

I could have given you some in Jimmy's last night to take home with you.  You should've mentioned it.

[Wilfrid]

I could have given you some in Jimmy's last night to take home with you.  You should've mentioned it.

By the way, her name was Claudine.   :)

[Christopher]

Don't tell me they're putting Evian cubes in the tap water, Ron.  This whole H2O business is wacko.  I'm sticking with the hard stuff.

Drought or no drought I always shake my head at guests who order bottled mineral water and then ask for ice. I mean, doesn't that defeat the prurpose?

[tommy]

Drought or no drought I always shake my head at guests who order bottled mineral water and then ask for ice. I mean, doesn't that defeat the prurpose?

i'm sure your comment is a *bit* tongue-in-cheek, but obviously you'll get a lot less "tap" water if you're drinking bottled water with ice than you wold if you were drinking straight tap water.

additionally, i started ordering bottled water regularly primarily because i found that the staff couldn't keep up with my water consumption.  i wanted to have control over it (bottle on the table usually).  of course, a lagging waitstaff wouldn't be an issue at GT.  :)

[Peter B Wolf]

Drought or no drought I always shake my head at guests who order bottled mineral water and then ask for ice. I mean, doesn't that defeat the prurpose?

i'm sure your comment is a *bit* tongue-in-cheek, but obviously you'll get a lot less "tap" water if you're drinking bottled water with ice than you wold if you were drinking straight tap water.

additionally, i started ordering bottled water regularly primarily because i found that the staff couldn't keep up with my water consumption.  i wanted to have control over it (bottle on the table usually).  of course, a lagging waitstaff wouldn't be an issue at GT.  :)

To understand Christopher right: Do you mean by "defeating the purpose" as ice is frozen water? Then Tommy is right, less water consumption from the ice when used in the Mineral Water. But is it not more correct/appropriate and tastier/healthier or whatever if no ice in any Mineral Water? Just properly refrigerated like beer, you would not add ice into beer!!?? Would you now? (Tommy! I understand, and already know your answer :p )

[tommy]

But is it not more correct/appropriate and tastier/healthier or whatever if no ice in any Mineral Water? Just properly refrigerated like beer, you would not add ice into beer!!?? Would you now? (Tommy! I understand, and already know your answer :p )

my contention is that there are several reasons to order bottled water (my reason being just one no doubt) and that putting ice cubes in doesn't (necessarily) defeat the purpose.  just like putting ice cubes in coors light really doesn't make a difference.  ;)

[Christopher]

I find that guests who order mineral water claim that it is for health or taste reasons and both of these are defeated when adding ice cubes made from municipal water.

I hadn't thought of it as a control issue as Tommy states, having it on the table, but man, $7 a bottle as an insurance policy against never being dry?  ???

[Sandra Levine]

I find that guests who order mineral water claim that it is for health or taste reasons

Well, nobody is actually going to come out and say that they are ordering it for status, but if that is the case -- in NYC, it is, (unless they order bubbles) then ice does not defeat the purpose.

[John Whiting]

I mean, isn't the whole point of conservation that everybody should do what he or she can, or at least do something? And that if we all do that, it will help? . . .I want to know what Whiting thinks. Whiting, do you align with me on this one?

Steven, I've just caught up with this one. Honestly, I'm of two minds on the subject. I think that a lot of the campaigning for private self-denial is merely a ruse to shift responsibility for ecological conservation from the massive overconsumers to the private superego. On the other hand, coordinated private behavior does indeed add up to a statistically significant effect.

But -- take this down to the personal level. There are all sorts of ways of conserving water. In a household, one of the most effective, which has been extensively promoted in California, is partially filling up the toilet supply tank with bricks or stones. As for not drinking tap water, how many of these virtuous diners will go home and squander hundreds of gallons through their garden sprinkler systems to be certain that their lawns don't turn brown?  And are you really helping to conserve the earth's resources by drinking water that's been transported halfway around the world, bottle by bottle? Go on, make a *real* contribution to water conservation -- skip your shower this morning and just wash the smelly bits!  :)

[Fat Guy]

John, as a gesture of solidarity, I plan to cease bathing at once.

[cabrales]

I find that guests who order mineral water claim that it is for health or taste reasons

Well, nobody is actually going to come out and say that they are ordering it for status, but if that is the case -- in NYC, it is, (unless they order bubbles) then ice does not defeat the purpose.

If a diner preferred sparkling (in the bubbles, carbonated sense) water sufficiently over flat (which tap would be), he might order bottled water for taste reasons (separate from the "flavors" of the water).  Having the sparkling effect would not necessarily be affected by tap water ice cubes, although I agree that such cubes are not a good idea.  ;)

I don't know if there have been board discussions on the question of whether sparkling bottled water interferes more or less with food taste than flat bottled water. I'm sure there have been, and "minimization of interference with the sampling of food" might be another argument for choosing a neutral flat bottled water for restaurant dining. I drink sparkling bottled water at restaurants -- Badoit or Pellegrino.

I drink only bottled water (or tap water that has been previously boiled and refridgerated) at home. It's for health reasons, particularly under the current environment of concern about terrorism. Poisoning of US water supplies is admittedly an extremely remote possibility, however.  ;)

[John Whiting]

John, as a gesture of solidarity, I plan to cease bathing at once.

I will not be so gross as to quote Dorothy Parker's rejoinder in another context, "How can they tell?" :p

[Wilfrid]

Incidentally, I never received the courtesy of a reply from B.R. Guest restaurants to my questions about their reported policy of refusing to serve tap water.    

[yvonne johnson]

At least the goverment replies! I received this last week in reference to my inquiry # 089141910

Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:50:57 -0500

From: "USEPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline"  

Organization: BAH

To: yvonnejohnson8@yahoo.com

Subject: Re: (089141910)

Dear Ms. Yvonne Johnson,

The Safe Drinking Water Hotline, operated by Booz¥Allen & Hamilton

under

contract to EPA, has received your inquiry.

Your question was as follows:  1. Would New York be able to save a

significant amount of water if restaurants served only bottled water

rather than tap?

2. What about if everyone in NY drank bottled water. Would that

significantly help?

We hope you find the following information useful:  Thank you for your

comments.  You may want to consult your the New York State Bureau of

Public Water Supply Protection to find out if using bottled water would

pose a significant savings/conservation of water.  The New York state

office can be reached at (518) 402-7713.

I contacted the NY State Bureau of Public Water Supply Protection, and spoke to very nice fellow, a research scientist. He did not have statistics on the % of tap water injested by humans, but assured me that the % was very, very small when compared with other uses.

The above confirms what has been my thinking all along.

[Wilfrid]

Just for the record, at the dinner enjoyed by a number of eGulleters last week, described here, the water question was handled with aplomb.

I did pity the waitress.  When she asked if we would like bottled water, she was greeted with shrieks of laughter, and told that it was a very complicated question.  However, the entire table assertively ordered plain old tap water.  How proud I was.  I even noticed that several glasses went undrunk.

Nevertheless, when the drought comes, you'll all know who to blame.  

[Peter B Wolf]

At least the goverment replies! I received this last week in reference to my inquiry # 089141910

Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:50:57 -0500

From: "USEPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline"  

Organization: BAH

To: yvonnejohnson8@yahoo.com

Subject: Re: (089141910)

Dear Ms. Yvonne Johnson,

The Safe Drinking Water Hotline, operated by Booz¥Allen & Hamilton

under

contract to EPA, has received your inquiry.

Your question was as follows:  1. Would New York be able to save a

significant amount of water if restaurants served only bottled water

rather than tap?

2. What about if everyone in NY drank bottled water. Would that

significantly help?

We hope you find the following information useful:  Thank you for your

comments.  You may want to consult your the New York State Bureau of

Public Water Supply Protection to find out if using bottled water would

pose a significant savings/conservation of water.  The New York state

office can be reached at (518) 402-7713.

I contacted the NY State Bureau of Public Water Supply Protection, and spoke to very nice fellow, a research scientist. He did not have statistics on the % of tap water injested by humans, but assured me that the % was very, very small when compared with other uses.

The above confirms what has been my thinking all along.

Well, at least now we know how the US Government (EPA) is squandering tax payer's monies: they have to have a contract with a well paid Company in order to give out New York phone numbers. Reminds me of the $ 256.00 hammer, the $1,200.00 coffee maker and a story where the US Navy paid $ 15,000.00 to a University (years back) to study the effects of opening ketchup bottles in Mess Halls.

[jhlurie]

The latest drought news is that the unseasonably warm weather, together with the regulations against use of water to wash down the sidewalks, is making sidewalk dining all but impossible--despite the appropriate weather.  Apparently it "stinks" out there.