Ask Tom

Kudos to Rosa Mexicano for listening to customer Brad Deutsch, whose query to the Penn Quarter restaurant about the cost of its bottled water was met with a price cut. After the Bethesda reader wondered why the Mexican hot spot was charging $7.50 for a liter of water, when the nearby Poste was offering unlimited water for $5, general manager Jon Nichols responded with an offer to refund Deutsch and news of a markdown: Rosa Mexicano now charges $6 a liter. "We looked at [the pricing], and we fixed it," Nichols told me when I called to confirm the men's e-mail exchange.

Deutsch then asked me: "Have you found that some restaurants are charging outrageous prices for bottled water?" A survey of restaurants near Rosa Mexicano found that $6 was the standard at the upscale Cafe Atlantico, Proof and Rasika. PS 7's charges $7. But one competitor, Le Paradou, commands a whopping $10 for its designer H2O -- an amount that would send this diner straight to "Tap, please."