Tap Water Might Be Making a Comeback

May 22, 2007 — -- The newest wave in dining chic is something as common as dirt. It's water -- and not just any water. Tap water. This accessible liquid is back and is being served at some of the finest tables in America.

When Mark Pastore opened Incanto restaurant in San Francisco, he wanted guests to feel welcome, and nothing said "welcome" better than offering something for free.

"We greet our guests with an offer of complimentary sparkling or flat water," he said, "rather than trying to sell them a bottle of water, which is so common at fine dining restaurants."

Pastore's gesture of hospitality, however, is actually costing him money.

He uses a two-part commercial filtration system that first pulls physical particulates from the water, and then a submicron filter that pulls out any chemical impurities not caught by the city's filtration system. He also has a carbonation tank so he can offer a choice of still or sparkling. It cost Pastore $5,000 to install the system, and another $1,200 to $1,400 a year to run it.

"This is a system that's designed to fit the capacity of a busy restaurant like … ours," said Pastore. "It costs us money, but we think it comes back to us in good will."

Customers, he said, are sometimes bewildered, sometimes wary, but always, it seems, pleasantly surprised.

"95 percent of the people, when we offer them complimentary sparkling water, their eyebrows go up and they think that's a good idea," Pastore says. "A few people are so trained to shunting away bottled water that they look at you and say, 'I just want tap water.'"

"To me, it's a pleasure and a gift," said one happy diner, Marsha Irwin. Another customer, Gail Perin, is tired of the high cost of bottled water. "Sometimes you leave a restaurant, and your water bills are as high as your wine bills. There is something wrong with that picture."

"To take the water from our reservoir and serve it on its own is revolutionary," says Ella Lawrence, a local food writer.

Food writer Ella Lawrence hopes the tap water revolution catches fire. She brought Harry Denton, a rival restaurateur, to Incanto for dinner, and he said he'd like to follow suit at his nightspot, the Starlight Room.

"I have to pass it by a huge corporation," Denton says, "and I am going to (try) after being here tonight." Asked if he would lose money if he stopped selling water, Denton laughs and says, "I sell booze."

Booze brings in the big bucks, but so does water. For some restaurants, the thousands of dollars they make on water each month is a lifeline.