Tap water at the price of gold.
With asterisk.
The restaurant La Olma de Pedraza (Segovia, 350 inhabitants) gives away the contents of the glasses of water, as required by law, but charges 4.5 euros for serving it to customers in one of the most touristy towns in the province.
This trick has led to a complaint from the Facua consumer association while the owner of the establishment, Sergio Blázquez, justifies this pricing policy because "everything that is served must be charged for."
“The water is free,” insists the manager.
What is not the work behind taking it from the tap to the table, priced at that price.
If a glass has 200 milliliters, the liter costs 22.5 euros.
Like a bottle of good wine.
La Olma's decision haggles the Law on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, in force since last April.
Article 18.3 of this precept states that "In order to reduce the consumption of single-use containers [...] in establishments in the hotel and restaurant sector, consumers, clients or users of their services must always be offered, the possibility of consuming unpackaged water for free and complementary to the offer of the same establishment”.
This measure, which will soon be one year old, had been being claimed for some time by the Consumer and User Organization (OCU).
The La Olma website already gives clues to the client about what can be found.
Along with the offer of wines, beers, soft drinks or teas, include this message: "Tap water service (per person),
We give it to them as a gift."
What they do not give away is the process of serving it, something that outrages Rubén Sánchez, president of Facua: "The owner has said it, it is evident that the workers are paid for their work, the clients pay for all the products and services, the only What you don't have to pay for is tap water or having them give you a fork and spoon”.
This "bravado" of the owner has marked that Facua has denounced: "There may be more restaurants that break the regulations but this one does it with bravado, proposing the trick that they do not charge you for water but the waiter service does".
Sánchez considers the restaurateur's attitude a "tease": "That is, 'I know the law but I laugh at it'."
The highest office of the consumer association admits that many other places surely do not offer tap water for free, but he wants to think that due to ignorance.
On the other hand, this "obvious cockiness" should lead the Junta de Castilla y León to open disciplinary proceedings against them for breaching the norm and penalize the stratagem.
The owner of the La Olma restaurant, specialized in suckling pig and suckling lamb, has explained to Efe the reason for this price, as can be seen in the video that accompanies this news item.
“We price our work, like anyone else in this country, unless it is an NGO.
At the moment, we are a company", Blázquez argued, stressing that in his establishment "water is free" and that customers can go to the bathroom and access the liquid element for free, but that his "service" company charges for their work, specifically 4.5 euros per glass of running water.
Whoever chooses to pay this money will have access to "a clean glass, freshly scrubbed, served by a waiter, and then that glass is cleaned again and recycled again," presumes the owner,
in addition to covering expenses such as the dishwasher or the Social Security of the staff.
"What a business entails," according to the man.
Four people regularly work in La Olma and another seven on weekends, as Pedraza is a very touristy town and has several awards as one of the most beautiful towns in Spain.
The alternative to those glasses of water at 4.5 euros is found, as can be seen in the drinks menu, in the so-called "KM 0 Water", which the restaurant bottles and presents as "microfiltered from odors and from the earth". , at a rate of 2.75 euros per bottle.
This policy with water generates reluctance that is reflected in Google reviews, since the user Gema V does not see this water management clearly.
“Marketing sense they have very little.
We asked for a bottle of water and they brought us a bottle of microfiltered water that they charged us at 2.75 (as if it were a bottle of branded mineral water).
We made the comment that nothing about the water appeared on the menu, and that they should have warned us, and they told us that it was specified.
When they verified that this was not the case, that the only thing that came out were wines, they did not have a single detail, they said that we were right and goodbye, very good, but they charged us for the water ”, the client complains.
The innkeeper settles the controversy like this: “In this country we are all very ecologists until we have to pay for environmentalism.
So they complain, of course.
But in this, in the end you, when you bet on something, you have to be consistent with what you bet ”.
Sergio Blázquez has told Efe that he is not ready to pay sanctions, but for the moment he is not going to correct the fines.
Until then, he will have to continue dealing with reviews such as the one written by José Ángel JAP, who, in the same way that he saw the suckling pig as “totally bland” and the “average suckling lamb”, reneged on the water: “The water seems great to me that it is filtered for not use plastic and stuff, but at €2.75 per unit, it's really amazing”.
José Ángel liked, at least, the cheesecake: “Very rich”.
