PACIFICA (Map, News) - Restaurant patrons in the city will no longer see glasses of water automatically appear on their tables while they study the menu.

Local restaurants recently began serving water only upon request. The effort, the North Coast County Water District claims, could save up to two gallons of water per customer.

The conservation program created by the water district offered restaurants reusable plastic place cards that explain the water-upon-request policy and its beneficial results. In Pacifica, the first Bay Area city to implement such a widespread program, 32 out of 33 sit down restaurants are now following the program.

“A lot of restaurants will just put water on the table as a matter of fact and a lot of people won’t drink it,” general manager Kevin O’Connell said. “We figured this would be a simple way to make an immediate difference without negatively impacting people. It’s better for the business and better for the environment.”

Many customers order a drink and don’t consume their free glass of water, which then has to be dumped by the restaurant and then washed with more water, a total waste of about two gallons, O’Connell said.

Several water districts in the Bay Area encouraged the water-upon-request policy during the drought in the late 1980s, district board member Mason Brown said, but the idea has since lost its tract.

Brown, who delivered the cards to 32 restaurants, said the owners’ response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“There is such a waste of water in the restaurant business,” said Nick Gust, who owns the famed Nick’s Restaurant at Rockaway Beach in Pacifica. “We used to give everybody a glass of water, but maybe half would touch the water, then you have to throw it out — it’s a big cycle where it’s a total waste.”

Gust said he has not heard any complaints from the customers, only half of which have been requesting water.

Since the launch of Pacifica’s program this month, Half Moon Bay and East Bay Municipal Utility District, which covers parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties and is facing shortages that may soon result in mandatory rationing, inquired about it.

The program may not be suitable for restaurants that cater to tourists, said Kevin Westlye, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, the trade group that represents San Francisco restaurants, because it may be perceived as a reduction in service rather than an environmental measure.

svasilyuk@examiner.com  

Comments from Examiner Readers

12:15 PM MST on Mon., Mar. 17, 2008 re: "New eateries may bud in Haight-Ashbury"

Gaza George said:
Let them eat and drink. Too many hemp products can be harmful to the multinational restaurant bottom line. Go liquor holes.

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7:27 AM MST on Fri., Oct. 5, 2007 re: "Chef Paolino�s dishes pasta with pizazz"

Examiner Reader said:
I was very surprised by the comment. When we go to eat at Chef Paolino, I always take the kids to a table first and either my husband or I order for all of us. Our first time there, we all took a menu to a table and then my husband went up and ordered for the family. I think the writer just misunderstood.

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8:42 AM MST on Wed., Sep. 12, 2007 re: "Chef Paolino�s dishes pasta with pizazz"

Examiner Reader said:
On the evening of 09/07/07 my family and I went to eat at this restaurant for dinner at 5:30 pm. Being our first time there I questioned if they would seat us or should we seat ourselves. The employee advised me we had to go order our food then we could seat ourselves. I ask him if I could please sit first. In my arms was my handicapped 5 year old daughter who from Spinal Bifida can not walk, my husband was carrying our 3 month old son and I had 3 other children with me ranging from 7 to 9. I explained to him I could not continue to hold her and go order my food due to her wait. It would be impossible to hold her and order, pay, ect. Even after explaining why I needed to be seated first he refused to do so. My family and I had to leave that establishment and to say the least was very dissatisfied with our first experience at the Chef Paolino Cafe.I believe this restaurant needs to change there process of ordering and seating customers. This process is very difficult for the handicapped

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12:51 PM MST on Mon., Jun. 25, 2007 re: "Powell brings Jamaican spice to Penn Quarter restaurant"

Anon said:
Chef Alex Powell's enthusiasm for his work and his creations comes across well in this article. As a food connoisseur and a lover of island flavors, it will be my priority to visit the 701 Restaurant. The chef takes me back to my own roots where the belief is that you can never go wrong with simple, natural ingredients. Way to go chef and welcome to DC!

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5:39 PM MST on Mon., Jun. 4, 2007 re: "Beer soup brightens meal in Ellicott City"

Examiner Reader said:
Sounds like a typical visit to most restaruants these days. Steak are always "iffy" I try to avoind them because a chef will tell you fat on a steak helps retain juices, but I don't like fat. Also, if I see a sauce on anything I avoid it. especailly at a place where I have never eaten. I had a friend that was a professional chef. I was grilling steaks at my house one day and asked him to show me how he made his steak taste so good. He rubbed both sides with salt.

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