Here's another good one: Publicly shaming restaurant goers for drinking TAP water!

Yes, it's true. I know it. You know it. We all know it. Why? Because we've all experienced it!

Gone are the days where you can comfortably and confidently sip your complimentary glass of unassuming water in restaurant before your meal.

(I always trusted this water was more purified than not but I was likely wrong about that. Still, a sip here and there of a clean glass of water to clean the taste buds before my appetizer and entrée brought me a small remnant of personal enjoyment.) 

So I went to an Italian restaurant last night and the entrées were $28+ so it was on the pricier end but nothing out of this world.

The waitress? Young girl. Sweet. Looks like she wouldn't harm a fly.

We haven't gotten a thing yet. No bread. No menus and the first thing out of her mouth is:

"Would you like sparkling water, bottled water or TAP water."

Mind you I put 'tap' in caps for a reason because her voice went up an octave as she said that cringe-worthy word. Not a Whitney Houston octave but more like Gilbert Gottfried where she made you feel dirty. 

Why call it 'tap'? Is the implication I want her to give me water from a garden hose or her bathroom shower nozzle.

And why say it just loud enough to let the other tables hear this as their eyeballs raise ever so slightly over their menus to peer at the cheap bastard at table 8.

I'm at a point in my life where not much bothers me but this one makes the embers of irritation embedded deep in my soul glow white hot!

What the hell are you trying to say? That I'm a cheap son of a bitc h because I don't want to pay $9 for a bottle of water that a Budweiser Clydesdale would have trouble finishing???

Am I 'less than middle class' because I want the standard glass of water before my meal, a restaurant tradition that is likely older than a century?

If I were on a date, I sure as hell would have trouble saying 'Yes, 100% Tap please!' with the confidence of Gordon Gekko.

What corporate bastard thought this up and made everyone feel less than human before they even got a menu!?

I say we band together and SCREW THESE RESTARANT OWNING BASTARD S and get our tap water from here to kingdom come! In fact we should all get tap and ask for it in a ultra large carafe!

VIVA LA TAP AGUA!!!

Rant Fin 

uote]I couldn't have said it any better myself. Don't be too hard on the politically correct liberal, he might never venture out to a good, quality restaurant again.....

A little heads up to you, genius:

In upscale restaurants, they do the water service/offering before you get menus and bread.

Could it be that you were just being your typical self, just looking for something to bittch about? They offer the types of water and ask your preference, as a courtesy. Nobody says you have to commit to bottled water.

And she probably saw you coming, or waited on you before, so maybe that's where the cheap son of a bittch implication came from. In an upscale restaurant, if the entrees are $28+ do you think she gives a shitt if you order bottled water or she feels compelled to 'shame' you?

As GMN stated, Olive Garden sounds more like your speed. Or Macaroni Grill, maybe you could get some crayons to doodle on the butcher paper they put over the table, as you sip your water and look for something else to complain about.

One last thing: Don't forget(or conveniently forget) to tip your server and tip them appropriately.

They do this as....a courtesy....LOLOL

Yes folks it appears a former or current server (clearly what this poster is), is now claiming that 'water service' (love the new term to explain how restaurants try to make money on ....water), are simply doing this for your benefit, not theirs.

Typically, restaurants give you a glass of water (and no, a $28+ entrée is not 'upscale' in the restaurant industry, at least not in the Northeast Metropolitan area) and then ask you for your beverage order and it is THERE where you can order nine dollar bottles of Perrier to your liking, just like everything else on the beverage menu.

Don't delude yourself into thinking you are doing ME a favor by attempting to shame the buyer into spending more money than they already will so YOUR tip can rise.

And that it what it is...shaming, however slight, and about making more money (which the servers are all too willing to concede to so they can get a slice of that pie). 

It is the same corporate psychological trick used by casinos when they refuse to put clocks anywhere (in an effort to make you lose track of time), have rug patterns that are byzantine (so you meander around aimlessly and eventually sit at a slot machine or table game and lose more), or have windowless walls (so you don't know whether it is night or day), all in an effort to do one thing: make more money.

Do you really believe the owners of these restaurants are doing YOU a courtesy by calling what was always a complimentary unnamed drink TAP water and putting it third behind two expensive bottle of 'premium water'?

Kid, seriously. Wake up. And stop bitching and moaning about your tips. I tip generously and this isn't what we are talking about (even in a simple post about water he's trying to ensure he makes more money! Just like the restaurants!).

Scalabrine, the more you post about nondescript, questionable at best issues, shows how much of a freaking moron you really are.

Once again, do you think that restaurants really give a shitt if you order bottled water or not??? They know that there are a lot of people that drink bottled water, and prefer it. So therefore, it is a courtesy to offer it --- and yes, it happens more at the more upscale restaurants. Btw, what do you consider upscale? Is $28+ for entrees, not? Notwithstanding specialty / pricier / delicacies.

You asked if I think they are doing me a favor by asking me if I want bottled water or not? If I drank bottled water and it mattered to me, yes. But I don't take it personally and look for a reason to bittch about it, like your wussie azz. I just tell them no thank you. Why don't you learn to do that and not getting your little panties twisted in a little bunch. 

I was throwing out the tip properly comment because it's people like you who find anything and everything to bittch about and find that as a reason to not tip. As I stated before, the server probably saw you coming from a mile away, could read you like a book and knew what kind of whiny, sniveling little piss ant that you are.

You use that kid term rather loosely, as you've said that before. Coming from you, who finds stupid, mundane topics to start threads to complain and whine about.

Again, stick with Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill.   

did you know?

Water in Europe cost more than milk in the USA? think about it......