MAY 15 2007
AMERICANWAY 29
cOKAY SOWEfRE NOWHERE NEAR PHOENIX
BUT THAT BIG RED BRIDGE IS AWESOME d
wakeupon thebright side
ª
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handwritten sign lists the soup, salad, and
pizza of the day. The pear-and-blue-cheese
pizza and the pan bagnat salad catch my
eye.ThenIsee theothersign— theone that
prettymuch tellsme thismeal I’m about to
havewill be likenootherbefore it.
Five steps are outlined, and they read as
follows: Help yourself to a drink. Pick up
yoursilverware,plate,napkin, andmug.Se-
lect yourmeal fromourdailymenu.Tell the
server what you’d like and the portion size.
Pay for your meal using one of two meth-
ods: (1)Placeyourdonation in thedonation
box (paying what you feel is appropriate),
or (2) exchange one hour of service for one
meal voucher.
Huh?Donation?Work for food?
ThE IdEA bEhINd
the no-price menu, an
altruistic initiative that is emerging un-
der the media-friendly term “Robin Hood
restaurants,” isn’t exactly new. Restaurant
Six89 in Carbondale, Colorado, has been
offering a pay-what-you-think-is-fair op-
tion on the last night of its season before
closing for thewinter for thepastfiveyears.
But that’s only onenight a year.OneWorld
Café in Salt Lake City (41 South 300East,
801-519-2002,
eats.com) and the SAME Café (2023
East Colfax Avenue, 720-530-6853, www
.soallmayeat.org)aremakingagoof it year-
round. Of course, this is the point at which
anyone with half a business sense totally
balks. Cracks up laughing. Adjourns the
meeting with a sarcastic cackle and possi-
bly even the thud of a heavymeeting-room
door. But not Brad and Libby Birky, the
owners of theSAMECafé.
“When people say we’re insane, we say,
‘You’re right!’” says Brad Birky, 31. “But
people are supportive at the same time.
They’re like, ‘If you canmake it work, then
great!’ We started with some seed money
we’d savedup, and
[
now
]
all themoneywe
use to run the restaurant comes from the
donation box. We’re totally dependent on
thehonestyof the customers.”
In the past, Brad, an IT consultant, and
Libby, a schoolteacher for gifted children,
had both enjoyed volunteering at soup
kitchens and at Catholic missions, and at
one point even found themselves in charge
of themenuand foodpreparation (Braddid
a stint in culinary school). Then they start-
ed brainstorming. (Pause here for shame-
less self-promotion: The idea for SAME
wasconceivedonaflightof thisveryairline,
duringwhichBradandLibbyscrawled their
initial ideason thebackof apage torn from
AmericanWay
.)
They eventually discovered Salt Lake
City’s One World Café, which opened in
2003. After checking it out, they decided
theircrazy ideawas indeeddoable.Thenext
thing theyknew, everyone, fromdown-and-
out drifters toneighborhoodbusiness own-
ers to poor freelance writers, was washing
their dishes in exchange for lunch— a far
cry froma soupkitchen.
“Weservemostlyorganic foodmade from
scratch,” explains Brad. “It’s pretty health-
ful. Not to take anything away from soup
kitchens, butwedon’t servea lotof stuffout
