Would you pay $1 for Water at a SF Restaurant?

It's the big $50,000, I meant $1 question... would you pay a restaurant $1 for a glass of water?

Maybe if you ate at the Millennium restaurant in San Francisco.

Michael Bauer of the SF Chronicle reports this particular restaurant charges a $1 fee for their water which is always free at any other San Francisco institution.

The restaurant claims they use a filtration system from the city's tap water line as a cost cutting measure due to the high priced of bottled water. They also mention that they do this surcharge because of the new San Francisco health plan law that requires employers to provide basic health coverage.

But really... FILTERED WATER? Is the restaurant owner just a total idiot? It is pointless to purchase a water filter for water in San Francisco. The Hetch Hetchy provides the best drinking water in the entire nation, and a local news station did a blind taste test with chilled water and people felt the municipal water tasted better than bottled.

Plus... tap water costs literally pennies a glass and the restaurant is literally taking a 700 to 1,000% markup on their "filtered water." What if I wanted non-filtered water? Would they still tack on the $1 surcharge? The answer from management: Either pay $1 for the filtered stuff or get NOTHING.

What a bunch of assholes!

You go to any restaurant and ask for water with your meal. No $1 surcharge there! Will people even eat at Millennium's? It's like going on an airplane and getting all the surcharges tacked on.

What is this? Some kind of frickin protest thought-up by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association against the San Francisco health plan law? You don't charge MONEY for TAP WATER! Filter my ass.

If a restaurant is financially hurting from the health plan policy, then there are two options:

1. Raise the menu prices by 50 cents (assuming that a patron orders two menu items).
2. GET OUT OF SAN FRANCISCO.

What's next A CORKAGE FEE FOR BOTTLED WATER?

Bottled Water, sounds cheap, but worth it?

Bottled Water - Ripoff!

If you have ever watched Penn and Teller: B.S.! on Showtime, you may have seen the bottled water episode when a waiter was selling off several different brands of water, when actually it came from the municipal source of water from a typical garden hose. Yep, the LA county municipal tap stuff.

But here's my experience: I was at an event today and I need to get some water at the corner store, the bottles sold there were only 59 cents a pop. What a great deal! Then I realized that heck, I'm getting ripped off at SFSU where they charge $1 for the same brand and same size! Is everything we buy at my university just so expensive, regardless that they get several times more customers than my local corner store?

Here's something you can do to say, screw you! to the bottled water companies... drink regular tap water! San Francisco's tap water is the best in the nation during a blind taste test where people sampled bottled varieties, and the local tap water. When SF tap water is chilled, it tasted much better!

So why pay for stuff that you can practically get for free? That does not make a lot of sense. All you need to do is carry a reusable and washable bottle, like a sports bottle around with you and fill-up and chug away! If you carry a backpack with you (for all you college folk), then just bring a bottle, it won't add so much weight.

Let's summarize my rants:
SFSU's bottled water is a rip-off, corner store is 40% less for the same thing.
San Francisco tap water rules!
Gotta love Penn and Teller.