Pricey hot lemon water has hundreds feeling sour
EDMONTON • An Edmonton restaurant has landed in hot (lemon) water after a complaint about a $3.50 charge for the soothing beverage.
Uyen Nguyen wrote a “first world problem rant” last week after she received the bill for a meal at New York Bagel Cafe, in Edmonton’s historic Old Strathcona district. It included $20.50 for a two-egg classic, $18.50 for an artichoke platter, $4.50 for coffee and $3.50 for hot lemon water.
“They bring the menus, and the prices were insane ... I keep staring at the menu, hoping the prices would change if I stared hard enough,” she wrote of the dining experience and posted it to Facebook.
Melanie Skrypnyk, a waitress at the café, said the restaurant has been getting hateful phone calls and messages following the online complaint, saying someone phoned to call her “a piece of sh--” on Thursday shortly before the Post reached her.
“What is going on in the world? People are so upset. We’re not hurting anybody. When people come in here, they’re free to choose to stay or go,” Skrypnyk said.
“What’s come to be shocking to us is this continued, sort of premise, that people have the right to be so hateful and the judge and jury of a business model,” she said.
“We’re selling hot lemon water for $3.50 and providing a wonderful place where they can consume that lemon water. There’s no part of us that understands why that piece of the conversation is continually being driven forward.”
Prices, Skrypnyk said, reflect the quality of ingredients and the ambience the restaurant provides.
Cash cows for restaurants, such as drip coffee and fountain pop — often around the same price — aren’t served there, she said. The restaurant doesn’t charge for cold lemon water.
“It’s not just about quality of food, there is a specific intention to bring local, organic, high-quality food items to people, that was the guiding idea,” Skrypnyk said. “There are a lot of people that value the economy of the thing first. Price is a huge, huge factor for a lot of people for various things, but for some people, for food especially, the experience is a deciding factor, the quality is the deciding factor, the uniqueness of it is the deciding factor.”
The post, which has nearly 700 comments and nearly 1,300 shares on Facebook, claims the server asked if she wanted lemon in her water, and didn’t disclose the price, though it showed up on the bill. The post also says they ordered drinks before receiving a menu.
“I don’t think it’s cool to charge for hot water, but it’s their right to charge for it. It’s not cool to be sneaky about it,” the Facebook post said.
Prices, said Skrypnyk, are all on the menu, and she says when the woman complained, the lemon water was struck from her bill.
“I think it’s really sad that the talk of the media and the talk of everybody is about lemon water, I feel like we’re missing a really great opportunity to talk about the tone of society, look at what’s going on online. When people want to be angry, they really find any reason, it’s like a firestorm, they fuel each other,” Skrypnyk said.