Here in the Bay Area, there’s already some precedent for restaurants engaging in this kind of activism. Oakland’s Monster Pho has long hosted an annual free phở day, for instance. And collective-owned Understory, another of the Pay What You Can event’s participants, offers a Pay What You Can dish — typically a warm, nourishing noodle soup — on its regular menu all the time.
During the pandemic, Assil herself started a “Man’oushe It Forward” program at her Mission District Arab bakery that allowed customers who had the means to subsidize a free meal for someone who needed it.
“There’s always a power to collective action,” Assil says of the Masala y Maiz initiative. “Hopefully people are inspired by this and sign up.”
Indeed, part of the reason for announcing the event four months in advance, as Keval and Listman have, is that there’s still plenty of time for the movement to pick up momentum — and for the list of participating restaurants in the Bay Area to grow from four to 10, or 20, or even more.
Bombera chef-owner Dominica Rice-Cisneros. (Clara Rice, courtesy of Bombera)
For Dominica Rice-Cisneros of Bombera, the Pay What You Can day is an opportunity for her restaurant to connect with its neighbors in Oakland’s Dimond District in a more approachable way. So many people in the neighborhood are working-class folks laboring in various sectors of the service industry, Rice-Cisneros explains. They’re Peet’s baristas, pizza-slingers at Cybelle’s and grocery-baggers at the Farmer Joe’s supermarket. They’re postal workers and auto mechanics. And while some of these neighbors have become occasional customers at Bombera, many others have stayed away, perhaps afraid that the food will be too “fancy” and that they won’t be able to afford it in the end.
“There’s a shyness around it,” she says. “So I want to make sure that this is a risk-free chance for them to order something they would never really order, and not feel bad about it.”
Reservations at Bombera are normally released one month in advance, with a handful of seats set aside for walk-ins. It’ll be no different for the Aug. 28 Pay What You Can promotion, but Rice-Cisneros plans to give those neighborhood workers first dibs on snagging a table for themselves and for their families.
In gentrifying cities like Oakland — and Mexico City, for that matter — there are so many upscale restaurants that have a tenuous relationship with their surrounding neighborhoods, with wealthy out-of-towners forming much of their customer base. Adopting a “pay what you can” model, even for just a day, might help bridge some of that gap.
Bombera hopes to use the Pay What You Can promotion to reach out to workers at neighboring businesses in Oakland’s Dimond District. (Clara Rice, courtesy of Bombera)
Rice-Cisneros’ hope is that new customers might come in and see that it is possible to come into her restaurant, order a quesadilla and an horchata, and have a nice sit-down dining experience for around $20 — that it isn’t always necessary to splurge on the duck carnitas mole and a bunch of cocktails.
Still, she’s thinking about adding an orange mole to the menu for that day only, just to make the meal extra special. And if everything goes well?
“I think definitely it’s something I would love to continue doing once a year,” Rice-Cisneros says.
The Masala y Maiz–organized “Pay What You Can” day will take place on August 26, 2026. See the event webpage for a full list of participating restaurants — or, if you’re an interested restaurant owner, to sign up to participate.