Lil' Buddy's Blog - What are YOU Drinking? How About a Nice Cold Chicago Tap Juice, On The Rocks?

THE CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE MARKET, AND OTHER THINGS CHICAGO, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A LITTLE WHITE DOG!

Here I am just lying around on our Living Room Floor, while my Human Daddy, Team Leader Dean, is out shoveling snow again.  Dean was a little mad - this is the 43rd day of accumulating snow this winter in Chicago - the worst for snow days in over 25 years!  He, Mom, and me - we're all getting pretty tired of all this white stuff - wish it were spring, already!

Come on, folks - visit us in Chicago (after the snow melts, of course!)  Drinks are on me!

And you know my favorite drink?  (No, it's not that imported Tequila with the worm in the bottle).  It's Chicago Tap Water!  You know, good ole' "Michigan Straight - Directly from the Waters of Lake Michigan."

Come on over to my place, and I will share with you from my Lil' Blue Dish.  It's cool!  It's refreshing!  And it's one of the purist, best-tasting drinking waters of any big city in the U.S. - perhaps the world! (See a recent survey from the NRDC on Chicago Water Quality).

You know, the drinking of bottled water here is only about a 20-year-old habit here across the U.S. - perhaps less in Chicago, where, years ago, only the shi-shi Evian set paid a buck and a half for a bottle of H20.  This year, water in a bottle has been made more expensive in the City of Chicago - the city imposed a 5-cent-per-bottle tax on bottled water effective the beginning of this year.

Even before bottled water became popular, however, most folks here in Chicago drank most of their water straight out of the tap (or in a glass, of course, sometimes over ice).  Unlike other cities, and some Chicago suburbs without Lake Michigan as their water source, few Chicagoans drank purified or spring water in those big, five-gallon, water cooler-sized bottles, paying money for what we are fortunate enough to get for free didn't make much sense.

Well, Chicago Tap Water is making a comeback!  One local Northside Restaurant, The Balanced Kitchen, on McCormick Boulevard, in the West Rogers Park Neighborhood, is eliminating bottled water from its menu.  Only pure, free, and more environmentally-friendly tap water is now available to drink at this establishment.

Earlier this week, The Balanced Kitchen sponsored a Water Tasting, pitting our Michigan Straight against such national heavy-weight water brands as Dasani, Aquafina, and Ice Mountain.  CHICAGO TAP WATER WON- for best taste, lack of odor, drink-ability - and whatever other characteristics define good water.

There are a few other restaurants here removing bottled water from their menus, out of concern for cost, as well as friendliness to the environment (those plastic bottles fill a lot of landfill space).  According to a posting by Monica Eng, in The Stew, Chicago's Blog on our Food, Wine, and Dining Scene, three such eateries include Clarke's Diner, just south of Wrigley Field in the Lakeview Neighborhood, The Heartland Cafe in the Rogers Park Neighborhood, and Ina's, in the West Loop.

See my Lil' Buddy's Blog Post today at BlogChicagoHomes.com for more.

Wanna buy me a drink?  Hey, you dogs - save your biscuits!  Fill my bowl from the tap!

But you stay away from my food dish!

BTW - How does tap water taste in YOUR town?  Would you drink it, let alone share it with your dog?  Let me know!

YOUR ACE REPORTER ON FOUR PAWS,

BUDDY HOLLY MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO