Unconventional wisdom: pulling profits without posting prices

Nation's Restaurant News, Dec 6, 2004 by Dina Berta

On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, I finally had the opportunity to visit in person one of the most unusual restaurants I ever have written about: One World Cafe.

Chef-owner Denise Cerreta made national news for her One World Card because of its menu, or lack thereof. She cooks whatever she wants each day, and customers pay whatever they want as well.

I was curious to see if she still was in business more than a year after I had interviewed her for a story for NRN. I found the restaurant in a house that had been renovated into a cozy mix of cafeteria and New Age coffee shop.

Cerreta was standing behind a waist-high counter, plate in hand, smiling as she dished up food for customers. It was a slow-moving line, because almost everyone seemed to want to chat with Cerreta as well as eat. Most stuffed dollar bills into a decorative box before they got into line.

When Cerreta got a break we chatted outside while I took pictures of her. She admitted that running the restaurant hasn't always been easy. She was doing well enough at one point that she hired several people. But that turned out to be a mistake, as the donations in the box weren't covering her expenses. For a while she was working 60-hour weeks and eventually she had to lay off some workers.

However, things are better now, she said. She has some excellent cooks who have come to work for her. A few customers pay for their meals by washing dishes. She has no regrets.

I never thought I'd see anyone else renounce prices. Then I returned home and learned that Six89 Kitchen and Wine Bar, a fine-dining restaurant in Carbondale, Colo., had celebrated its fourth annual Pay What You Think Night.

At first I thought Six89 and One World Cafe had very little in common. Six89 is a darling of local and national critics as well as Zagat survey writers. Chef-owner Mark Fischer offers a one-page menu that changes with the seasons and availability of local produce. And there definitely are prices. The average per-person check, including wine, is about $60.

Yet the more I thought about the differences between the two, the more similar they seemed. Six89's menu offers a section called Random Acts, where for a set price Fischer cooks a full-course meal of whatever he wants for the customer. Six89 also is in a renovated house and has a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. The people who work there always are smiling.

Both chef-owners are unconventional thinkers. Fischer forsook Aspen, Colo., an upscale skiing resort well known for restaurants of culinary finesse, to open a place in the working-class town of Carbondale, 30 miles north.

So I called Fischer, but I got an answering machine. The restaurant was closed for a month during the off-season. He did reply to my e-mail, however. It seems that Fischer, who has a second restaurant in Carbondale called Phat Thai, was in Thailand doing research. Here are his written responses to some of my questions about Pay What You Think Night:

Why do it?

It seemed to fit our style in the sense that it was a way to generate the sort of feedback that is most meaningful. It's also a way to give thanks to our regulars for their continued support. It's also a pretty good way to empty the walk-in.

Do you do a special menu or just offer the regular, everyday menu?

It's our regular menu. Just no prices.

Did your wait staff think you had lost your mind?

People in general think I'm a little "off," but a great part of our success seems to be our staff. They buy into what we're trying to do, and they believe firmly in our product and how it's presented.

Do customers pay more or less than they do on a regular night?

Check averages are almost identical. The benefits are the same as the aforementioned reasons, besides the fact that it's sort of fun. The energy in the room is a little different.