Amid 250 bottles of Pellegrino sparkling water.
Francis Schott, owner of Stage Left and Catherine Lombardi in New Brunswick, bought local before it was trendy. To lessen his carbon footprint, he switched from importing spring water to buying local spring water. A harder challenge was replacing the 250 bottles of imported San Pellegrino sparkling water the two restaurants sell every two weeks (depicted above with Schott). He tried seltzer bottles with CO2 cartridges, and bought equipment from soda companies. Results, he says, were “not great.” Finally an assistant found a potent yet energy-efficient machine from Soda-Club. Now the restaurants make their own bubbly and serve it, like the still water, in reusable bottles.
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