The Michelin Guide-listed eatery in the county of Cheshire offers diners the choice of almost 140 varieties of wine. But now the business is taking a bold step to cater for discerning non-drinkers by offering an entire menu of bottled water.
Diners will have the choice of three different bottles of still water and four sparkling beginning Friday, as well as complimentary tap water.
La Popote is tapping into a global trend away from alcohol. For example, based on a Gallup poll last year, 58% of adult Americans drink alcohol, down from 67% in 2022. A growing number of Americans are giving up alcohol, whether permanently or temporarily, while many restaurants are offering a bigger range of mocktails, and sober bars and non-alcoholic bottle shops are becoming increasingly popular.
Chef Joseph Rawlins, who founded and runs La Popote with his French partner Gaëlle Radigon, said they had initially been approached about the idea by Doran Binder, who was already supplying the restaurant with their ‘house’ water under his Crag Spring Water brand. A water sommelier, certified by the Fine Water Academy, Binder first suggested the idea of a water menu to the couple three years ago.
“I laughed it off,” Rawlins told CNN. “I initially thought it was a ridiculous idea.”
But when Binder invited the couple to a tasting at the “water bar” he owns in the Peak District, a national park in north-central England, they were sold.
“It was mind-blowing,” Rawlins said of the experience, adding that he now believes that “water isn’t just water.”
At that first tasting, they tried five or six different varieties. “Then we did a second tasting with exactly the same waters but we paired them with certain foods – like Manchego cheese, Comté cheese, chocolate, Parma ham, olives. Like with a wine, the taste just changed.”
The restaurant is the first in Britain to offer a water menu, according to Binder, and one of only a handful in the world.
Binder curated La Popote’s water menu, which features a selection from across Europe, including Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. Prices range from £5 ($6.80) for a large bottle of his Crag brand to £19 ($26) for The Palace of Vidago, a Portuguese sparkling water.
“The measurement of minerals in water is what drives taste and flavor,” Binder told CNN. That measurement is called Total Dissolved Solids, or TDS, he said.
“Distilled water is zero TDS. It’s brilliant for cleaning windows, brilliant for electrical appliances, brilliant for your car battery – rubbish for the human being,” he said, noting that sea water is at the other end of the spectrum with 30,000-40,000 TDS.
