Bloomington restaurant makes changes following city switching its water source

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD) — A restaurant in Bloomington is making changes for the good of their customers.

Shannon’s Five Star Restaurant, located on Mercer Avenue in Bloomington, has seen their tap water’s taste affected by the city’s change of water source from Lake Bloomington to Lake Evergreen.

Bloomington switches primary water source

Gayle Clem, general manager, said it is extremely important to them that they have beverage options to fit the accommodations of their customers.

“Some of these customers are water drinkers, period,” Clem said. “They don’t want sugary drinks. They don’t want caffeine, especially at lunchtime. So we’ve taken it upon ourselves because there’s been so many complaints daily, to start buying water, bottled water, and having it ready for our customers as needed.”

The restaurant has started to purchase cases of bottled water to use for customers to drink, and gallon jugs of water to use for their soups and gravies. With the taste of the water being more unpleasant to many, it affected the taste of both, causing Shannon’s to switch to gallon jugs.

“It just takes one person to get one of our products, let’s say our one of our featured soups, that doesn’t taste right, and that, you know, could be the end of that customer ever ordering that soup again possibly or ever ordering another item from us,” Clem said.

The bottled waters are $1 for customers, and Clem said people have been wanting to pay for it for the cleanliness. You are still able to order the tap water if you wish to.

In an on-camera interview, Clem said that since Thursday afternoon when they got the pre-packaged water to Friday afternoon, they had gone through five cases already.

Ed Andrews, water director for the city of Bloomington, said in a news release Friday evening that response from residents regarding the water had improved.

“While seasonal taste and odor issues can occur, the additional steps we’ve taken seem to be improving quality, and we’re starting to hear more positive feedback from residents,” Andrews said. “There is still more to do, however, and we know many continue to be impacted by the issue.”

Jeff Jurgens addressed the source switch in the news release as well, saying he tried the water himself.

“This morning, I tasted the water at a local restaurant, and it still had a bad taste,” Jurgens said. “Clearly, the issue has not improved everywhere in the City. That’s why we remain fully committed to aggressively addressing it until every resident and business has quality drinking water.”

Shannon’s will start to use the pre-packaged water for their coffees and teas on Saturday.

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