Austin restaurant brings pay-what-you-will dining amid cost pressure

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At a Tuesday night dinner in Austin, diners at L’Oca d’Oro can order from the restaurant’s regular food menu and then decide what amount to pay, as part of a “pay-what-you-will” promotion meant to keep sit-down dining within reach. The restaurant charges a 20% service charge on the total customers choose, according to the owners, to help support staff wages, benefits and paid time off.

For Zayed Al-Hamad, the option represented a chance to visit a nicer restaurant with his family without taking on what he described as a prohibitive price tag. In February, he said his party of four was ready to order items such as rosemary sourdough focaccia, fresh mozzarella and several pasta dishes, and that he expected to write down less than full price because “things are a little bit tight.” He said he wrestles with “a level of guilt” when he sits down to decide on a lower amount, adding, “It just doesn’t feel like it should be possible.”

Other diners said they found the promotion especially useful after recent spending setbacks. Armand Daniels and Robin Wiley said they heard about the deal on Instagram and described Valentine’s Day as “OK, but nothing out of the ordinary,” framing the restaurant visit as a new celebration. When they placed their order, they said they planned to decide what to pay when the bill arrived and discussed the possibility of paying less than the full price.

The restaurant’s decision to try the pay-what-you-will format dates to December, when co-owners Adam Orman and Fiore Tedesco III were contending with what they described as a mix of disruptive tariffs, rising food costs and a labor shortage, along with their own increasing menu prices. Orman said the partners wanted to respond to fewer people being able to afford dining out, arguing that getting drive-thru isn’t the same as hosting guests for a meal. He said sitting down, being treated with hospitality and feeling like a guest are experiences that “everybody should be experiencing regularly,” and that the promotion aimed to make that possible.

Orman said Tuesday-night diners still pay full price for drinks, while they can choose what they pay for food. Tedesco said he attributed a drop in the restaurant’s volume over the past two years to political and financial instability, and he pushed back on the idea that the only way to respond to higher costs is to raise prices further.

In describing the wider context for the promotion, NPR reported on Americans cutting back on dining out. A YouGov report cited by NPR said 37% of U.S. diners said they were dining out less often than a year earlier, while only 8% said they were going out more. When people do eat out, the story said, most meals are taken to-go, with data from the National Restaurant Association cited as showing nearly three out of every four meals served by U.S. restaurants were takeout orders.

Even so, the article said restaurants provide social functions that go beyond food. Princeton University anthropology professor Hanna Garth said that for many people dining out is a break from the routine and that restaurants can also reduce some of the burden of cooking and cleaning at home. She described restaurants as a “third space” outside home or workplace where people interact with others, including brief social connections with staff or other diners, and said those small exchanges can matter for people’s sense of belonging. Garth spoke in the NPR report about the social exchanges that can disappear when restaurants become inaccessible.

At L’Oca d’Oro, multiple diners described how they decided what to pay on the bill. Erin Weber and Michelle Valencia, who said they were at the restaurant for a “girls night,” said they had tried the pay-what-you-will concept once before and said they liked that it allowed people “from … all walks of life” to enjoy food. After ordering, they said their tab came around 8 p.m. and that they planned to split the amount they paid on their $117 bill, describing the final payment as like a “happy hour total.”

Orman said the restaurant typically earns less than full menu price on pay-what-you-will nights, but he added that the business has sometimes made more than the full food price, and he said Tuesday traffic and revenue have increased since the promotion began. He also said the partners are considering expanding the pay-what-you-will concept over the summer as they add new menu items.

Other diners said the promotion also worked as a way to support the restaurant when they had more room in their budgets. Chris Ortiz and Rickyann Ramos, celebrating two years of marriage, said they planned to cover their whole bill, telling NPR they wanted to “fully take care of it from our end” and “hopefully that can help others out.” For Al-Hamad, the dinner ended with his hope that when his finances improve he can pay more at restaurants like this, saying he wants to “support these businesses more and more” as he gets on better footing.