The Today Show featured a family restaurant in Maine that is letting their customers order what they can afford. The scallop dinner is normally $18.95, but if you’ve only got $8.00 — they’ll make you an $8.00 version.
Save money, eat smaller portions… this woman might just be a hero.
(Thanks, missdona!)
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A local golf course did same concept last week. Play 18 then come in the shop and pay what you think it was worth. How did it turn out? Well, the usual rate was $45.00 for 18. About 80 percent paid that amount. Nobody paid more than $45.00 and about 10 percent paid ZERO.
@chiieddy: Years you’ve known me?
1.) Make a reference to a musical
2.) People go nuts
3.) ???
4.) Profit!
@bobfromboston, @AlisonAshleigh, et al: Just for the record. I’m from California. As we control the media, we get to make the final determination. YOU all have an accent. WE don’t. And our feces smell like warm cinnamon rolls.
*ducks*
@TheRealAbsurdist:
Speak for yourself. You must be from Northern Calfornia, because here in Southern California, our feces smell like roses!
This reminds me of an article I saw in a magazine yesterday about a doctor in Iowa who tried being retired but just didn’t like it. He reopened his practice,but now he doesn’t accept insurance or medicare. However, he has a donaton box on the counter. You pay what you can. I wish there were more docs like him.
brilliant.
It was my understanding that you make money off of drinks/the bar and sell the food at or below cost.
I do this anyway- when I go to my local deli eatery, I ask for half portions of their special and they charge me hlf. The full size portions are actually 5 or 6 servings…
@spindle: True. She’s doing a community service by enabling the elderly to do more than sit and wither away in their homes.
@TheRealAbsurdist: Nice try. The popular accent that controls the media is actually from the middle of the US – around Ohio. Read more about the General American accent here. (As a Californian I was also shocked upon learning this in Uni.)
@Pixelantes Anonymous: Right, which is why I think she’ll be very successful. Eight diners with shallow pockets trump three empty tables any day.
This is a good idea and also meets the needs/desires of people who don’t want to see enough food for a week piled in front of them when they eat out. I sincerely hope this starts a trend across the states.
My grandparents would be all over this, since they don’t have a lot of money and restaurant portions are like five times what elderly people eat at a sitting.
This is a gimmick. Once the economy picks up, do you think they will offer a la carte pricing.
The don’t seem to know it yet. But this restaurant will be going out of business soon.
My last landlord had lived in Tehran for a couple years..He told me a story of how beautiful everyday life was there:
You would go into a grocery store, and you would have three bins of, say, rice. One would be 1 Rial a kg, one would be 2 rials a kg, one would be 3. Same rice. The deal was, if you could afford it, you would pay the higher amount..to subsidize those who were down on their luck, who would pay the lower amount. Brilliant! Wonder if it would work in the U.S.?
@battra92: Wow, why such hostility towards Maine accents? Every country has accent and dialect differences within. Surely you’ve heard a Brit with a Cockney accent speak. It’s rough. And you can’t get much more “English” than the English. Thank god for subtitles on the BBC as I pretty much need a translator to figure out what they are saying. But whatever, who cares. I think there is something to be said for regional differences and nuances.
Then again, if anyone wants to launch a crusade to eliminate the oh so charming Brooklyn/Queens accent, I wouldn’t protest.
@Lambasted: Then again, if anyone wants to launch a crusade to eliminate the oh so charming Brooklyn/Queens accent, I wouldn’t protest.
100% agree with that, but can we just expand that to any accent that renders you mute when your nose is stuffed up and you can’t talk out of it?
That reminds me of Denver’s SAME Café (So All May Eat) that I read about in my Cooking Light magazine. People can pay what they want or perform services to compensate for the costs too.
@AlisonAshleigh:
“I’m from ‘Cape cop’ and I speak perfect, well articulated English. I use the letter ‘r’. I only know about 3 people with the affliction you’ve described, which to non-assholes is known as AN ACCENT.”
Exactly. Well, almost. There’s a difference between an ACCENT and a DIALECT.
Since English is your native language, you speak English with a Cape “cop” DIALECT.
A native French person who speaks English as a second language does so with a French ACCENT.
I suppose the person who first posted his ignorance thinks that everyone should speak “General American”, or they’re “doing it wrong.” That’s just not the case.
I’m an actor, by the way, with specialization in Accents and Dialects, and the person who thinks Cape “coppers” can’t speak English is just, well, stupid. Can he/she break into a Cape “cop” dialect without thinking about it? Probably not. So why should he/she expect you Cape “coppers” to break into General American?
Ick. Ignorance sucks.
@battra92: Yes YEARS. At least two – three. You’re banned from the forums where I know you elsewhere. They love you THAT much.
@Lambasted: Wow, why such hostility towards Maine accents?
Eh, it’s more because I tend to associate it with Red Sox fans who are probably the rudest fans on earth. That and I just saw My Fair Lady so I thought I’d made a joke about accents and dialect since everyone in the video, especially the proprietor had them. I don’t hate, but it is annoying that others get defensive.
And for all the people making fun of my cod/cop typo, remember that some people have a mild case of dyslexia and cannot always see the difference in letters, especially those which are so similar.
We have a similar restaurant here in SLC, UT, called the world cafe. Instead of pro-rating meals, its based on “pay what you think it was worth” basically you pay whatever you think the food was worth at the end. It has been thriving for years now on this system. Foods tasty too.