Restaurant has 45 page water menu

[Jenise]

From the Oh Brother! department:

Ray's & Stark Bar, the Patina Group's restaurant and bar located at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will be adding a 20-item Water Menu to its beverage list next week. Eater LA reports that Ray's & Stark GM and water sommelier Martin Riese created the list which includes waters from ten different countries including Spain, France, Germany, and Canada. The bottles range in size from .75 - 1 liter, and are priced from $8 - $16. The most expensive bottle is Riese's own California-made water 9OH2O. Eater LA had previously reported that 9OH2O retails for $14 per bottle because it's made "in limited editions of 10,000 individually numbered glass bottles."

According to a press release, waters on "LA's most extensive Water Menu" will be for sale by the bottle and also as part of a $12 water tasting menu. Riese is quoted in the press release saying: "We are already accustomed to pairing food with wine or beer, but many people don't know that water is just as important to the entire dining experience." The menu is a booklet that features descriptions of each water varietal, including information on origin, mineral content, and tasting notes.

I guess I'm never going to make it as being really cool. If the local water tastes allright pop in an ice cube or two and I'll get by. Now real money for wine is a different story.

you could die of thirst reading a list like that

Maybe the origin of the word 'varietal' has really been lost entirely.

"20 item" water menu on 45 pages - do they devote 2+ pages to each water bottle???

[Jenise]

"20 item" water menu on 45 pages - do they devote 2+ pages to each water bottle???

Maybe they include large photos for the illiterate.

[Jenise]

Maybe the origin of the word 'varietal' has really been lost entirely.

Wasn't that hilarious?

I'm salivating.

"We are already accustomed to pairing food with wine or beer, but many people don't know that water is just as important to the entire dining experience."

Now that IS spin of the highest order.

[i]"We are already accustomed to pairing food with wine or beer, but many people don't know that water is just as important to the entire dining experience." [/i

Now that IS spin of the highest order.

Don't get carried away Thomas, it's pure unadulterated BS.

I wonder if they allow cappage.

Maybe the origin of the word 'varietal' has really been lost entirely.

Wasn't that hilarious?

Pretty much.

Reading between the lines, what they're really saying is 'the margins on water are excellent, and if we sell each table a $10 bottle of water, think how much our gross will increase!'

truly gross

Soon, the restaurant's tap water faucet will be "out of order."

"water sommelier"? Please! I can't help but wonder what a Master Sommelier of Wine would think of this.

i almost lost MY water laughing at this.

But then I realized that there are a lot of folks out there who think that a big wine list is just as ridiculous, so who am I to judge?...but I will.

Charles

http://www.patinagroup.com/restaurants/133/menus/Rays-Tasting-Water-menu.pdf

It does not look so ridiculous to me. The prices are crazy but I have tried many of the waters on the menu and sure notice a difference between them. Never seem the FERRAREllE in my market but am on the look out for it now.

I think there are obvious differences between waters, and some taste (to me) much better than others. I still think more than one still and one sparkling is silly.

You people laugh (and it is rather silly), but for the millions of people around the world who do not have access to drinking water, water truly is a luxury good. Give enough time (with uses for hydrofracking, coal, mining, industry, agricultural contamination, etc.), you sense that menus like these might be more commonplace in the not too distant future.

[Jenise]

Mark, that there are millions of people around the world who don't have access to plentiful or clean drinking water is exactly why a 45 page water menu IS so "silly"!

You've all seen the Penn&Teller Bullshit episode on bottled water? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHx6BX3HZJc