the opinionated bar-log
tap water instead of mineral water in the bar
Tuesday, 06.May 2008
Using tap water in Europe is much easier than in the Middle East!
![Friends - there is a new topic in the aether and it is all about liquid element.
The discussion started in NYC - restaurants just offered expensive import water to the customers instead of the established iced water; which was not really appreciated by a lot of people. Now the discussion reached Europe.
The reason, why I would like to add my ideas to the subject is a nice post on the German blog www.barbaublog.de; as it was very bar specific!
This becomes even more important for me, as my coming assignment as Manager i/c Bars (...) needs new or supplemental ideas.
yrkekry
It would be easy to avoid this debate here in Dubai!
The tap water is drinkable and doesn’t cause direct health hazards - but it is also not advisable to drink this H2O on a regular basis - as it is processed with chlorine and other chemicals to provide a hygienic result.
For ice machines we are using a large-scale filter mechanism to provide correct and odorless ice.
End of story? Not exactly!
I think we need to think about our environment! Especially here in the Middle East this is not a really popular issue - but even here it comes more and more into the mind of the people...
Of course you can buy here the usual Perrier, Evian, Aqua Panna or San Pellegrino (beside of other brands), but we also do have several providers, which are offering processed drinking water or local spring water. So you do have the chance to avoid long transports from Europe or Japan and offer this local water. Conveniently they also offer these waters in 25l deposit“gallons”; so you can even avoid waste (while you can also buy these products as PET bottles it is environmentally not really advisable and looking quite horrible on a table).
These products are tested regularly and you don’t have to rely on your believes that the tap water is Ok - besides of your [hopefully] lead-free tubing, which supposed to be in a proper condition!
kek
When I had my duty meal today, in one of our restaurants [the Noodlehouse]
I made another related discovery! Before they offered to every customer jasmine tea complimentary. Now they charging 5 AED with free refill!
This could be beside of cover charges a good solution! Giving customers unlimited (maybe slightly carbonated) water and charge just a bit, to avoid “misuse”. C’mon 5 AED are not even one euro!
Another idea: plain [purified] water is not my cup of tea.
And a shriveled lemon slice doesn’t make it better... But as I am actually a big fan of pressing lemon juice [in house] we would have lemon spirals in excess - a nice long lemon twist is the perfect and functional subtlety and only would need a bit of man power (as the lemons which have to be pressed all needs to be peeled).
So what do you think - would it be a nice treat to offer a carafe of iced and slightly carbonated water (or if wished strong carbonated or still) with a lemon twist - for a minor cost?
May be it could be cool to serve a jug with an big ice chunk which includes the lemon twist inside?

OpAl Questions:
What are your thoughts about offered water?
Do you think, that it is a good idea to abandon the idea of taking water sales as “up selling”?](6_tap_water_instead_of_mineral_water_in_the_bar_files/shapeimage_2.png)
