Here’s a wholesome story for your heart and belly: Today (August 26, 2026), restaurants from around the world are participating in a pay-what-you-can initiative. More than 100 restaurants are offering up their usual food menu and high-quality service to customers, but with no expectation that diners will cover the bill. Guests are instead asked how much they want to pay and tip, with some visitors even paying in trade such as artwork, a homemade salsa, or exercise classes for the restaurant’s staff. Drinks typically remain at full price. The initiative was started by Saqib Keval and Norma Listman, coowners and chefs at Mexico City-based restaurant Masala y Maíz. They have offered Paga Lo Que Puedas (Pay What You Can) days for more than eight years. Last year, they invited other restaurants to join them and had more than 20 participants, including three Michelin-starred restaurants. Now, their “global day of hospitality” is expanding into a movement “about trust, access, and filling dining rooms with community,” as they put it. Masala y Maíz encourages new restaurants to sign up and shares a playbook for participants that addresses: Service design and pacing Guest communication Team preparation and moral Financial considerations Community engagement Press and interview talking points The majority of restaurants taking part this year are based in Mexico or the United States, with others in Colombia, France, India, Nigeria, Turkey, and more. Here are some of the restaurants in the U.S. offering pay what you can today: Bombera in Oakland, California Tokyo Record Bar in New York Hellbender in Queens, New York Oyster Oyster in Washington, D.C. Mera Kitchen Collective in Baltimore Comadre Panadería in Austin Lenoir in Austin Ayu Bakehouse in New Orleans 22 Moons Tea Room in Valrico, Florida You can see the full list of all participating restaurants on the Pay What You Can website.
Curated from Fast Company. Classified as Business & Technology by AI, which sometimes makes mistakes.
At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, the AI Stage is back to dig into the single hottest topic in the community for the past few years, presented by Google for Startups.
A home's heating and cooling system can be one of the biggest drivers of utility costs.
Nvidia has reportedly agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, in a deal that would give the US chipmaker control of one of the artificial intelligence industry’s most prominent platforms for sharing open-source models.
