A few weeks ago, I heard about a restaurant in Brooklyn who was beginning a “Pay What You Want” campaign. This was the Santorini Grill on Grand Street. At first I thought, oh wow, how cool is that! Then I thought that this poor woman who runs this great Greek restaurant is going to be taken advantage of.

I try not to be pessimistic when it comes to human actions but I’ve seen enough people try to get something for free to know that this poor lady was going to get swindled out of a few meals.

Paula Douralas the owner of this three-year-old Brooklyn, NY establishment says that yes, some people have left without paying for the food. But what is interesting about this experiment is how the people feel about it.

Apparently some people are skittish about the whole idea. Many ask “what’s the catch?” Douralas says that some of her customers are paying more for their meals than they used to. It seems that people are worried about paying too little for their food. This has prompted the lovely cook to provide two menus to those who ask. One contains the prices she used to charge and one contains no prices at all. But she doesn’t provide that luxury for the check.