Pay What You Can
With restaurant profit margins being as low as they are, why not make restaurants non-profit?
The concept of a pay-what-you-can restaurant isn’t a new idea, but it’s unusual for a restaurant to be run as a non-profit entity.
Most people who start a restaurant are either chefs looking to cash in on their talent or people who just love to cook but typically don’t know too much about running a restaurant, either way, the hours will be long and the pay usually isn’t what’s expected.
Suppose you are taking over an already-established concept. In that case, your biggest concern should be retaining the customers that the business already has while increasing profits as much as possible without getting too big for your britches.
Over the years I have been asked by multiple people if I was ever going to open a restaurant, and my answer was always no.
Why not?
The real question is why would I want to when every restaurant that I’ve worked in has closed for some financial reason or another?
Bankruptcy, corporate closure, the owner selling the place, and a failing economy all have been reasons the restaurants I’ve worked in have closed.
These restaurants had one problem in common, they were trying to make a profit, in fact, because of their business model, they had to make a profit.
If the inability to make a profit was one of the main contributors to their closure then why try to make a profit at all?
Why not have a menu with suggested donations instead of fixed prices?
Let’s face it, eating at a restaurant is a luxury but food is a necessity, and if restaurants never make a profit again people will still eat.
Restaurants operate for a variety of purposes, some showcase the latest culinary trends, some menus are nothing more than tasty science experiments, and others operate solely to feed the community in which they serve.
One example of this is JBJ Soul Kitchen, a non-profit, pay-what-you-can restaurant operated by Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Foundation.
The JBJ Soul Foundation is an entire organization dedicated to fighting hunger and homelessness since 2006.
They operate their 3 non-profit restaurants in New Jersey and over 1,000 units of affordable housing in 12 states.
Not everybody has the kind of cash that Jon Bon Jovi has, but those who do should deeply consider doing what he has done to help fight food insecurity.
How does a pay-what-you-can restaurant work?
It works like any other restaurant, you’re seated at your table, you order from a menu, and a server brings your plate.
Instead of having fixed prices, there is a suggested donation at the end of your meal, and if you can’t afford that, you pay what you can.
Customers who can pay in full are asked to pay it forward for the ones who can’t.
What if you can’t afford to pay anything?
I am sure that each restaurant does it a bit differently but typically if you can’t afford to pay at all then go ahead and enjoy your meal and the staff will discuss volunteer options.
Volunteer options more than likely consist of a variety of cleaning tasks and other basic restaurant jobs depending on skillset, there’s always cleaning to be done.
In a pay-what-you-can restaurant or community kitchen as they are sometimes called, the menu is usually smaller than a full restaurant menu.
These menus are often comprised of 3-course meals that feature a soup or salad, a main entree, and a dessert. Ingredients may be locally sourced or donated by supporters.
This kind of restaurant can partner with local farms, grocery stores, and other food suppliers to secure quality products and possible donations.
As I said I would never open a restaurant but this kind of idea sounds kind of tempting. It’s a cool idea and it’s something that I think is needed in just about every city in The United States.
If I were to open up a place like this it would need to be extremely crowd-funded as I don’t know any uber-rich philanthropists yet, but one day I might.
I would want to be able to focus heavily on the food part of this idea ie, where to source the best products and find the most affordable proteins, and veggies without compromising quality.
My menu would more than likely change weekly based on what was available, this would ideally make it easier to work with seasonal products.
And of course, we would offer something for the carnivore or the vegan and everyone in between, although I can’t guarantee I could accommodate every food allergy or preference but we could make a valiant effort.
I’m just kind of working out an idea here so bear with me but I think more of this sort of thing needs to happen in the culinary world even if it’s on a very small scale.
I lived close to a small restaurant that was in the middle of downtown, it was a very popular breakfast spot that was always busy no matter the day. Once a week this restaurant would serve a free dinner to about 600 hungry people in need.
A good percentage of these people were living on the streets and in desperate need of a hot meal, but some were working people with homes and families who also were sometimes in need of a meal, no one was turned away, somehow there needs to be more of that.
If one small restaurant can do that once a week, wouldn’t it be reasonable to think that just maybe larger chain restaurants could as well?
I would love to see this happen in more places. Like you, I was turned off from the idea of owning a restaurant very early on, and every time the conversation comes up, one of us (my partners) will quickly shut it down.
Jon Bon Jovi turns out to be pretty cool!
I was comptroller at a popular restaurant/bar back in the day in southern Ontario. We were successful BUT it was the profits from the bar that kept things going.
I think the concept of pay what you can is brilliant but I think it’d need a very wealthy benefactor. It’d certainly help.