You may have read earlier stories on this blog about a pay-what-you-wish bakery in Canada, a pay-what-you-wish coffee shop in Washington state, and pay-what-you-wish granola at a Miami supermarket.
Here’s another pay-what-you-wish eating story, but in this case, you have to bring your own food. That’s right. On King Island in Tasmania, Australia, there’s an old boathouse that’s been converted into a rustic harborside restaurant where patrons cook their own meals. They leave behind money for the use of the building in an “honesty duck” — i.e., a box decorated with a toy duck.
“People really, really love the concept of trust and that’s to me half the reason why we’re running it, because I respond to that,” the proprietor Caroline Kininmonth told Eleanor Hall of The World Today. “It’s a very childlike feeling.”
There is nothing in the article about average payments. The real estate business being what it is versus the food business being what it is, and considering how much people love to cook, I wouldn’t be surprised if a restaurant without food is a lot more profitable than one with food. I recall that Cosmo Kramer once had a plan for a make-it-yourself pizzeria. Can anyone out there tell us about a setup similar to this Australian one in the U.S.?
(Hat tip: Chuck Falzone, via kottke.org)
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I guess they don’t have a Starbucks to use.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanschwartz
Perhaps it’s slightly off, but definitely in line with the costs of running a full restaurant as opposed to a partial system is Kitchen Chicago (http://www.kitchenchicago.com/kitchen), where small(er), sometimes aspiring-to-restauranteur chefs use the facilities to prepare their meals. As mentioned in previous posts, there are legal issues here in Chicago with kitchens, but a lot has to do with cooking out of the home, health concerns and, of course, greasing the palms.
To the writer’s point about Cosmo Kramer’s pizzeria “where you make your own pie,” when Jerry reminded Kramer how dangerous it was for untrained people to be dealing with hot ovens, he replied that the whole process would be closely supervised.
Yeah, I, like many others, would pass on such a restaurant. When I’m hungry for a shake or a pizza and I’m in my car? I generally don’t want to do anything but eat a shake or a pizza, let alone go home and bring the ingredients. I’d rather buy a blender and do my own shakes, and make my own pizza in my own oven.
But yeah, whatever the Tasmanians do is their business. I don’t think the business model will catch on with any kind of franchise in the US.
The pay what you wish coffee place in Kirkland, WA is no longer pay as you wish. Does anyone know if other pay as you wish places are keeping their model?
A marina here in town has something a little different. You show up in your boat with your own meat (chicken, fish, steaks, burgers, whatever…) and there is a dock bar with a couple of bartenders and a grill. They will cook your meat the way you want it and they work on tips. I think part of it is they know you’ll sit there and have a drink or two…but it’s nice.
There’s similar in idea to Shabu-shabu, Korean barbecue and other “hot pot” restaurants on the West Coast:
There’s a buffet of prepared but raw cuts of meat, vegetables, pasta, and other things. You sit at a table with a burner, a pot of just-under-boiling broth, and a foil-wrapped grill to put marinated meats.
You cook your soup (or grill your meats) at the table.
Nobody here has been to a Korean barbecue place? You pay for the raw meat, then cook it on a small grill (at your table) to your liking.