A restaurant with no checks

At the Karma Kitchen in Berkeley, Calif., customers pay what they want – including nothing – for a meal.

from the October 25, 2007 edition

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The common principles are volunteerism, no pleas for funds, and a view that these activities are not about changing the world. Rather, as Smooth Feather founder Silas Haggerty notes on his website: "We do small things, change ourselves not the world."

The ethos behind "gift economy" activities is to offer goods in the spirit of service with the conviction that the act, if genuine and without strings, will be self-sustaining. Put simply, a service or product is offered with the assumption that the act of giving is its own reward, and that it is likely to generate more giving in an ever-enriching circle.

The economics of this can work in mysterious ways, or not at all. None of Karma Kitchen's founders, for instance, would have bet on support from a cab driver who brought a group of out-of-towners to the restaurant's door a few weeks ago. After hearing about Karma's credo from his passengers, the cabbie gave them money to pass along to the restaurant.

Nor was anyone expecting a $100 donation from a woman in a supermarket line who was so moved when she heard about the restaurant from one of its founder that she later handed him a $100 bill in the parking lot.

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The idea behind Karma Kitchen began percolating in March among Mehta, wife Pavi, and a network of young people who have been doing charity and volunteer work in Silicon Valley for several years. Rather than start from scratch, which was not feasible, since the eatery was going to be operated by volunteers who have day jobs, the group decided to approach successful Berkeley restaurant owner Rajen Thapa.

As Pavi Mehta recalls: "He said, 'I am a man of action not words. Tell me what you need and when you want to start.' "

So much for lots of careful planning. Within a month, Karma Kitchen had opened, taking over the premises each Saturday night of Thapa's Telegraph Avenue restaurant.

It was a joining of like minds. Mr. Thapa has used his Berkeley restaurants to support a school for poor children in Nepal. "I myself started from poverty and hunger and was only able to move ahead when someone gave me a scholarship to attend school," he says.

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