Turning Water into Whine

Turning water into whine

By commoner • Jan 16th, 2009 • Category: 2009, Focus, Jan 16 - 22, 2009, News, Weekly

Nick Logan

Even with the higher minimum drink price, a beer is still cheaper than water at some Halifax bars.

Last month the Nova Scotia government set the base price for alcoholic drinks at $2.50 in hopes of curbing binge drinking and its harmful effects. A bottle of water can cost you at least 25 cents more than that, making the incentive to sober up less appealing.

In some bars and clubs, customers have no choice but to buy bottled water because there is no obligation for operators to provide tap water free of charge.

“There’s no law against that,” says Gary Muise of the Grafton-Connor group, which owns The Dome, Taboo and Cheers Bar & Grill in downtown Halifax.

“I’m a retailer, so if somebody’s going to be in my premises and there’s an opportunity for me to sell a product, I’m going to sell it.”

Bottled water is a major source of revenue for bar owners, especially when alcohol sales are going down.

“People don’t drink like they used to,” says Mike Schmid, owner of Reflections Cabaret. “More people come to dance than drink.”

He estimates he sells about 400 bottles a week, generating a profit that amounts to almost half the $10, 000 rent he pays for the venue each month.

“We can’t have someone come in and pay $7 (cover charge) then not drink anything.”

Reflections stopped providing free glasses of water and removed the cold water taps from it’s bathrooms because patrons were drinking it from there. Bottled water is a better option for customers, Schmid says, because the water coming from the building’s 80 year-old pipes doesn’t taste good.

The executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia doesn’t see a connection between the price of water and excessive drinking.

“I would assume that someone that wants water isn’t going to turn around and start drinking beer because beer is cheaper,” says Gordon Stewart. He’d be more concerned if a bar wasn’t offering any type of water at all.

Businesses have to make decisions “to find a balance” between making money and accommodating people who don’t want to spend money on alcohol, he says.

The decision to stop providing free tap water was a business issue and a matter of safety, for Schmid. He says the bar used to offer pitchers of water, but there was a risk that someone could tamper with it.

“I’d be hard pressed to find an establishment that would deny someone a glass of water if they felt they were at the edge and wanted to slow themselves down,” Stewart says.

But that is the case at The Dome and its partners. Muise considers not giving out water the fulfillment of a responsibility.

“If somebody’s gotten to the point where they’ve had too much to drink and they want to switch to water, I’m legally not allowed to have them in the bar anyway.”

The president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Halifax recognizes that businesses can choose to have tap water available, but he wonders if money-making trumps customer safety.

“If the bar’s just out there to push the liquor,” says Paul Bonang, “they don’t care, I don’t think, what condition people are in when they leave and don’t worry about them when they walk out the door.”

The Grafton-Connor group’s nightclubs provide non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers – so they don’t have to buy water – but only juice or soft drinks. Offering water to some people, and not others, would lead to arguments between customers and staff, Muise says. He wants to prevent that, even though it costs the business money.

The head of Addiction Services at the Department of Health Promotion and Protection says water availability at bars – from the bottle or the tap – is not under his jurisdiction.

But there is a “culture of drink” in Nova Scotia, Dan Steeves adds, and his agency would “support and encourage establishments or party hosts to have non-alcoholic drinks as available, as promoted or as attractive as the alcoholic beverages.”