Restaurants Try Turning Off the Tap

Patrons sitting down for a meal at Koto Restaurant in Newport Beach find a laminated card on the table announcing that water will be served only on request.

“Did you know that it takes eight glasses of water to clean one water glass?” the card asks.

Manager Shig Tajima, who until two months ago routinely put water on every table, said of the new policy, “The customers haven’t complained. It’s saving water and money. We should have started this a long time ago.”

Tajima’s is one of more than 200 restaurants participating in a campaign by the Orange County Water District to conserve water. “We are in an arid region of Southern California,” district spokeswoman Jenny Glasser said. “Although we can drive down the street and see beautiful landscaping and lots of green trees, we want people to know that the water isn’t free-flowing.”

Though the region is not in a drought, she said, recent small snow packs and low rainfall bode ill for the future. “We’re trying to be proactive,” she said. “Just because water comes out of your tap today doesn’t mean it’s always going to be there.”

While some restaurants have opted for years to serve water only on request, the water district’s countywide campaign is the only one of which she is aware, said Kristen Short, a spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Assn. The trade group, based in Sacramento, represents 17,000 restaurants.

Glasser said the water district’s effort grew out of a campaign two years ago to persuade hotels to save water by offering guests the option of reusing their bed linens and towels. “It saves water, energy and labor costs by cutting down on the wash,” she said.

Glasser said about 60% of the county’s estimated 400 hotels feature cards encouraging guests to dry their faces on day-old towels.

Since first being approached by the water district in June, Glasser said, 208 of the county’s 4,677 restaurants have agreed to encourage patrons to forgo water.

The environment is not the only beneficiary. Kathy May, owner of Kathy May’s Restaurant in Huntington Beach, said she has not served an unrequested glass of water in more than 20 years. “If you give them water and they drink it,” she said, “they’re full.”