Colorful chalk powder-painted walls and handmade wooden cases coddling specialty wine and wheat beer line the cozy and eclectic eatery. The decor and live music please the customers, but The Jones Bside’s newest initiative has gotten mixed reviews.
The Jones Bside implemented a new water service that charges patrons 50 cents for water from the trending Vero Water Bottling System.
Tap water is still available for free.
Served in a sustainable and sleek glass bottle, the Vero Water Bottling System considers its water “the world’s greenest premium bottled water.”
The Jones Bside co-owner Maya Velesko agrees. When Velesko decided to implement the highly filtered water, she considered everything, including the health, environmental and business benefits of the water.
“In terms of the ease from a business standpoint, it’s a machine that chills and filters on demand, so there is no need for ice, so that way we get rid of the conundrum of dirty ice and filtered water. Also, it’s aesthetically something I have been wanting to do,” Velesko said.
As with most change, Velesko recognizes that some members of the community are hesitant to accept the newly added water cost and received some negative feedback about it.
“We work, every damn day and night, to create a business from the heart,” reads the first line of the restaurant’s mission statement.
In taking that feedback and by informing customers of their reasoning with the mission statement on the menu, Velesko hopes to get her message of sustainability across.
“I thought that by placing a really minimal fee on water, it would help raise awareness that, ‘Hey! This should be valued just like that glass of Coke or that beer that you’re buying,’” Velesko said. “I’ve seen people stand up and chug the last of their beer so that they don’t leave a drop of it and I really feel like people should start taking the same approach to water.“
Finance junior Deirdre Steel sees the financial benefit of the Vero Water Bottling System from the restaurant’s business standpoint and the rationale behind the controversial move.
“As long as the customer is notified, I think charging for purified water is fine,” the 20-year-old said. “Abroad it’s not uncommon to be charged for clean water.”
Regardless of whether or not customers are completely pleased with the progressive initiative, both agree that it is important to take steps to continue supporting environmental awareness and The Jones Bside in its strides toward sustainability.
“I think water a luxury that many Americans take for granted,” Steel said. “It’s sad, too many people in this world have no clue what pure water even means.”
