When I sat down at a table at Ray’s & Stark Bar, the acclaimed restaurant on the plaza at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and saw five empty glasses lined up at each place setting, I knew it was going to be a night of heavy drinking. And it was. But there was no risk of a hangover or improper behavior. What was being poured was nothing more intoxicating that good ole H20. Along with about a dozen other members of the press, I had been invited to a water tasting.
Martin Riese is the general manager of Ray’s & Stark, as well as the restaurant’s water sommelier-the only person to hold that position in LA. Born in Germany, he says that as a kid the first thing he did when he went on vacation with his family was run to the tap to taste the water. “My mother thought I was always thirsty,” he says. “I was just obsessed with water.” And so he remains. He first worked as a water sommelier at the First Floor restaurant in Berlin and went on to write Die Welt des Wasser (World of Water), a serious and critically well-received book about his favorite subject.
The water menu at Ray’s & Stark features more than 20 different waters from around the world. There are familiar labels like Fiji, Perrier, Evian and Pellegrino. And waters you’ve likely never seen or heard of- Berg from Canada, Germany’s Gerolsteiner and Llanilyr from the UK.
Waters don’t all taste the same, Riese explained. They have differing amounts of TDS (total dissolved solids) and minerals. Some are naturally carbonated, like Badoit from France, which has the type of tiny bubbles “found in fine champagne,” Riese says, and which pairs beautifully with sweet wine and cheese. A water with a high mineral content, like Denmark’s Iskilde, is Riese’s beverage of choice after the gym, to replace electrolytes lost through a sweaty workout. When he’s reading or watching a movie at home Riese chooses a smooth, neutral water like Fiji or Voss. And, when he’s pairing water with fine dining, he’s partial to his own proprietary small-batch water, Beverly Hills 902H0–“the world’s first Sommelier-crafted Water.” Drawn from the springs in the northern California mountains and made in limited editions of 10,000, each diamond-like glass bottle of 902H0 is individually numbered.
With people skipping cocktails during a business lunch and some not drinking at all as a cultural or personal choice, a water menu is a great way to add a sense of occasion to an alcohol-free meal.
Shelley Levitt
Editor
California Meetings + Events
So, would you ever consider offering a water tasting at your events?
