A pay-what-you-want pop up takes a radical approach to fine dining
After several BART stops and a dead cell phone battery, I met with Saqib Keval at a small restaurant in Old Oakland. We sat across from each other, a stainless steel cone filled with French fries between. Saqib is the man behind The People’s Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant that combines high-end fine dining, local ingredients and social activism.
Having trained and worked at high-end restaurants in Southern France, Saqib (unequivocally self-identified as “brown”) noted that he and his co-workers (most hailing from North Africa) were did always feel welcome eating in restaurants like the ones they helped prosper. In response, they started their own weekly dinner. Soon, it became a community event – one that Keval brought with him back to the Bay.
Loosely modeled on the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program (a program once notoriously deemed a national threat by the CIA), The People’s Kitchen embraces a radical approach, running on a pay-what-you-can pricing system, and refusing to turn patrons away for a lack of funds. Although the pop-up locations vary, organizers see to it that communities that lack access to locally grown, organic food are given priority.
As I ate my meal and he finished his, our conversation nudged me along to a striking conclusion – food is the driving force behind almost everything. I don’t mean that in a “I post memes about food and Instagram my meals” way, either. Once upon a time, the “foodies” of the old, Colonial-Era European elite pillaged the Western Hemisphere, the African continent and India for raw goods like sugarcane, cotton, and tobacco. I don’t want to oversimplify here, but I think you can draw a parallel historically. Today, foodies open up artisanal restaurants in historically black and brown communities. Soon, gentrification hits the entire neighborhood, rents rise, and developers swoop in.
Given that reality, the People’s Kitchen is revolutionary by nature, by its mere existence. The food is phenomenal, essentially free, and is available to residents who often have to trek miles for healthy groceries or a quality meal. More than anything, though, it asks its patrons for something simple: to come and share a meal with neighbors, discuss current events, and look for solutions.
Learn more about the People’s Kitchen and keep up with the latest at their website or Facebook page.
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