{"id":272725,"date":"2026-04-17T15:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272725\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:29:08","slug":"bay-area-restaurants-will-allow-customers-to-pay-what-you-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272725\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area Restaurants Will Allow Customers to Pay What You Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in the Bay Area, there\u2019s already some precedent for restaurants engaging in this kind of activism. Oakland\u2019s Monster Pho has long hosted an annual free ph\u1edf day<\/a>, for instance. And collective-owned Understory, another of the Pay What You Can event\u2019s participants, offers a Pay What You Can dish \u2014 typically a warm, nourishing noodle soup \u2014 on its regular menu all the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, Assil herself started a \u201cMan\u2019oushe It Forward\u201d program at her Mission District Arab bakery that allowed customers who had the means to subsidize a free meal for someone who needed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a power to collective action,\u201d Assil says of the Masala y Maiz initiative. \u201cHopefully people are inspired by this and sign up<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, part of the reason for announcing the event four months in advance, as Keval and Listman have, is that there\u2019s still plenty of time for the movement to pick up momentum \u2014 and for the list of participating restaurants in the Bay Area to grow from four to 10, or 20, or even more.<\/p>\n

\"PortraitBombera chef-owner Dominica Rice-Cisneros. (Clara Rice, courtesy of Bombera)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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\u2019re Peet\u2019s baristas, pizza-slingers at Cybelle\u2019s and grocery-baggers at the Farmer Joe\u2019s supermarket. They\u2019re 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 \u201cfancy\u201d and that they won\u2019t be able to afford it in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a shyness around it,\u201d she says. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reservations at Bombera<\/a> are normally released one month in advance, with a handful of seats set aside for walk-ins. It\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

In gentrifying cities like Oakland \u2014 and Mexico City, for that matter \u2014 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 \u201cpay what you can\u201d model, even for just a day, might help bridge some of that gap.<\/p>\n

\"ViewBombera hopes to use the Pay What You Can promotion to reach out to workers at neighboring businesses in Oakland\u2019s Dimond District. (Clara Rice, courtesy of Bombera)<\/p>\n

Rice-Cisneros\u2019 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 \u2014 that it isn\u2019t always necessary to splurge on the duck carnitas mole and a bunch of cocktails.<\/p>\n

Still, she\u2019s 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?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think definitely it\u2019s something I would love to continue doing once a year,\u201d Rice-Cisneros says.<\/p>\n

The Masala y Maiz\u2013organized \u201cPay What You Can\u201d day will take place on August 26, 2026. See the event webpage<\/a> for a full list of participating restaurants \u2014 or, if you\u2019re an interested restaurant owner, to sign up<\/a> to participate.<\/p>\n