Same Cafe feeds the common good
Posted: Monday, March 09, 2009 11:54 AM by Daily Nightly Editor
By Jack Chesnutt, Producer, NBC News
It's a classic lunch-hour café scene.
A jam of mid-town Denver customers ordering soup, pizza and fruit. Café owner Brad Birky and his wife Libby are taking orders, serving up plates, and chatting with the regulars.
Our NBC News cameraman, Ray Farmer is squeezing through the crowd at the front counter - trying to get shots of the action - the food prep, order-taking, and smiles - all without getting soup or salad dressing on his lens. We're here to capture the scene, NOT because it's like many other Denver airy cafes with high-ceilings, wooden ceiling fans, and warm colors.
There are a handful of cafes which serve very good food, cooked each day with fresh ingredients (fresh-picked broccoli for the soup! The pizza dough made from scratch just an hour ago).
We are here because we heard from one of our viewers that the SAME Café is unique, it is the only café which has no prices on the menu. Customers pay what they can afford for the food.
The SAME Café's name? SAME? It stands for So All May Eat. And, they do. They eat well.
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| Ray Farmer/NBC News |
A table full of public-relations workers marvels at the pizza and makes a donation well beyond the price of a typical mid-town lunch. Nearby, out-of-a-job construction worker, Aaron Bogart is having some soup and fruit salad and finish up with a fresh-baked cookie. Bogart's donation will be a few hours work wiping down tables and cleaning up.
In the kitchen area, Dave Severino is rolling out pizza dough. He's usually a nurse, but he says because of a bureaucratic snag in child support payments, his nursing certificate is suspended. He has no paychecks coming in. With his nursing career is on hold, but in the café he's hard at work. His day's pay will be food, and a few things just as important: respect, the friendship of others in the café, and a sense that he is a part of this community.
It's at this point, I'd quote Brad and Libby Birky about why they started a café with such an unusual business model, but you should watch their story tonight on Nightly News, or see the story here on the Nightly News website. And, then you can check out the Birky's website: www.soallmayeat.org. From there it's up to you. You just might make a decision, based on what you can afford, and what is in your heart.
