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Water Torture
Restaurants have a new weapon in the bottled-water war, a tactic they're betting will make the most penny-pinching diner pony up for Pellegrino: good old-fashioned guilt. Now that the city is officially experiencing a drought, requesting tap water in certain upscale restaurants has become an environmental offense, tantamount to leaving the lights and air-conditioning on during an energy crisis. According to city officials, restaurants are required to abstain from pouring tap water unless requested, but rumors are circulating about certain places that won't serve it at all. And even though there's no legal obligation to provide drinking water on request, "It's a rather poor business decision not to," says Chuck Hunt of the New York Restaurant Association. (More water is used to wash dishes and cook than to hydrate parched diners, so it might be more environmentally correct for waiters to refrain from replacing the silverware after every bite.) We appreciate the fact that restaurants like Fiamma and Tavern on the Green have slashed their exorbitant boutique-water prices, but we reserve the right not to buy it. Let's pray for rain, and in the meantime, we'll resist the hard sell, swig our beer out of the bottle, and ration our showers. Even the Department of Environmental Protection frowns on up-selling disguised as conservation. It might not be illegal, says DEP chief of staff Charles Sturcken. "But to me, it's a moral issue."— ROBIN RAISFELD