https://twitter.com/#!/x/status/1949948265627070737

If you can't read the above menu, at the bottom right corner it says:

We proudly serve Vero Water for our guests to enjoy.

Please note there will be a $1 per person charge for unlimited water during your table service.

Vero Water significantly reduces the food miles and pollution associated with imported bottled water, leaving nearly a zero carbon footprint.


I have two words for this: Bull and Shit.

First off, in case you're not familiar with Vero Water, it's a filtration system. You can buy it for your house. It's not bottled, but rather just filters existing tap water.

It's not even legal to sell tap water, though some places get around it by charging you for the cup (though you have to be able to keep the cup in that case). Here the legality is questionable because they're selling you tap water and you aren't getting to keep anything tangible. They can claim they're charging you for the filtration, but that already gets iffy. But let's say it's legal, which it might be (my preliminary research says it is legal in Nevada).

This is really obnoxious, and the phony environmentalism associated with it is even more obnoxious. It's one thing if they simply charge the money and say filtered water is part of their service, and that's that. However, to claim it's for reasons of "leaving zero carbon footprint" is hilarious, and is akin to ordering 4 Big Macs and 3 french fries at McDonald's, but washing it down with a Diet Coke to cut down on calories.

Restaurants in general leave a big carbon footprint, especially when it comes to the washing of the mass number of dishes they generate. The typical restaurant meal will generate far more dishes needing to be washed per person than a meal at home. Some of this is due to presentation, and some is due to sanitation. There's also a large carbon footprint from the acquiring of supplies and food for the restaurant (which they laughably refer to as "food miles" in their statement). If they were serious about this extreme environmentalism, they would simply close all of their restaurants for the environment's sake. And if they really felt this strongly about the pollution generated by bottled water, they could simply take a stand by refusing to serve it, and instead serve filtered water for free. Instead, they're hitting each table with a $1/pp surcharge for tap water -- far more than the cost of the filtering itself.

Look, if you want to make more money, I get it. That's fine. But don't try to pretend I'm paying more because you care about the earth.

Momofuku (which fittingly has the words "fuk u" in the name) has several locations, and the Vegas version is in the Cosmo.