H2 Know: How restaurants can get the most from water

Bottled, filtered or tap? What’s the best water to offer guests and can H20 ever be a money-spinner for restaurants? The Staff Canteen dives in.

Water is always in the news. We hear about this natural resource when there’s too much, or too little of it, and when companies that supply it to our homes and businesses mess up.

Then, last year some surprising news linking water and hospitality trickled in: La Popote, a French restaurant in Cheshire was introducing the UK’s first water menu.

Drinking water – bottled, filtered or from the tap – has of course been offered to diners for decades, but this was the first time we’d seen a dedicated list created by a certified water sommelier in a restaurant.

It was perhaps surprising this news made such a splash given sustainability concerns around bottled water and the fact that non-alcoholic and soft drink innovation is high.

However, Doran Binder, the water sommelier responsible for curating the seven-strong water list for La Popote, and owner of water brand Crag Spring Water, had been certain for years it would generate interest. He just needed to convince a restaurant to get on board.

“It took me three years to persuade Joe [Rawlins, chef-patron at La Popote] to do a water list and he was the bravest person in the country to agree,” he explains. “I’d been talking to a lot of people about it and they were scared because they thought they’d be laughed at. I knew it would get huge publicity though and it did.”

News of La Popote’s water menu featured heavily in the national and international press when it launched last August and the restaurant experienced a surge in bookings from diners eager to try the seven bottled waters.

Seven months on, are diners still as thirsty?

“The buzz has died down a bit,” says Joe, “but we’re still stocking water and selling it.”

While diners are ordering bottles of water at La Popote, in a perverse move, more of them are asking for tap water now than before the menu existed, says Joe. He puts it down to the fact it’s listed on the menu.

“Tap water’s always been available, we have to offer it by law, but because we have it on the menu, they know it’s OK to ask for it, if that makes sense.”

This increased demand for free tap water doesn’t concern Joe, he regards it as part of the service. And diners are ordering bottled water. Doran’s brand Crag Spring Water, sourced from a spring in the Peak District located seven miles from La Popote, is a best-seller, while Lauretana a bottled water from Italy and sold for £12 for a 750ml is also a popular choice.

An educated taste

The water menu has not been a money-spinner for the restaurant, Joe admits, but that wasn’t the intention. It gained the restaurant the publicity Doran predicted and, in some small way is helping to educate consumers about water.

Because different natural spring waters have their own flavour profiles, influenced by the rocks they flow through says Doran. “Just like in the world of wine, we have terroir in the world of water,” he says.

Teetotaller Doran would love to see more restaurants stock a wider range of mineral waters so diners can appreciate the taste and health benefits.  He rejects any criticism that bottled water is bad for the planet, believing that as long as waters are sourced sensibly the impact is minimal.

“All you’re doing is enhancing epicurean and fine dining experiences, that’s all this is,” he says.