Usually, Alice Waters has others following in her footsteps; this time, it’s the other way around. Inspired by San Francisco’s Incanto and Nopa, and Sausalito’s Poggio, Chez Panisse will no longer sell bottled water, instead opting for an in-house carbonator that will make filtered sparkling tap water free to customers:
“It doesn’t make sense to use all that energy to ship water across the world and then truck it to our restaurant if we feel like we can carbonate our own water,” said general manager Michael Kossa-Rienzi … The restaurant joins a growing number of high-end Bay Area restaurants that do not sell bottled water, a decision owners say they initiated to address environmental concerns and as a courtesy to customers.
Kossa-Rienzi also said that they will use Incanto’s carbonator as a model. The consensus among all involved parties seems to be that filtered tap water is cheaper and tastes better, so what’s not love? Less things to recycle?
Chez Panisse, 1517 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA; 510-548-5525
Restaurant to Eliminate Bottled Sparkling Water [The Daily Californian]
