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At our grand opening party, we didn't sell food, but just brought out platters of food for everyone to eat. Guests bought drinks, but enjoyed the food for free. At the end of the night both Jacks and I commented how nice this style of service is. We catered a number of parties over the summer, at which we served the food in this same manner. Somehow people seem to enjoy the food more when it is a surprise, when the food is more of a community activity than a personal plate ordered. So... here is our idea, our less conventional restaurant model: do this style every night. At the end patrons can pay what they feel they ate. Maybe it wouldn't work for breakfast. Maybe it would be a hard way to manage a restaurant. We do of course realize that there would be those who took advantage of such a system. It would be a bit of a scary business model to jump into full throttle. So maybe at first we will start by having an event like this once a month or so--see how it goes.
Any ideas?
it does sound like a good idea... theres a place down here 'lentil as anything' (its a ref to a famous aussie band) that does a pay as much as you feel all the time for all meals. i have heard that the 3-ish locations are owned by a wealthy-enough gentlemen so he is better able to support this.
ReplyDeleteeither way if you try it once a month (and maybe charge an extra buck a drink, or a small 'entry' fee if you find people are being excessive) it could be both a community building exercise and a taste expanding device.
good luck!
http://www.lentilasanything.com/
also dawn asked me to mention that rhizome cafe on broadway does one dish that follows this model. you could ask them (leanne knows some of them i think) how it has worked out for them.
I heard about a cafe in seattle(?) that operates on this model as well... wish I had better details for you!
ReplyDeleteI agree that you do a trial run for a while - like once a month, or at most once a week - for awhile. As well as the possibility of loosing money, there is the possibility of loosing a lot of potential customers if you just jump right into that.
ReplyDeleteEven if one thinks it's a great idea in general, there are lot of specific occasions when most people wouldn't want to go community style. Like say, a first date, almost any other date, a business meal, a quick meal in a hurry, when you want to eat what you want to eat, when you're eating with your uptight relatives, when you're eating with other uptight people, when you're uptight, and so on.