Restaurant lets patrons pay what they wish

NEW JERSEY (FOX5NY.COM) - Chef Zod Arifai, the owner of Blu in Montclair, New Jersey, plans to close this restaurant when his lease expires at the end of August. Until then, he wants every customer who dines at Blu to choose the amount they wish to pay for their meal.

"Everyone says 'don't do it because you're going to close in two weeks, be out of business'," Arifai says. "I says 'No, I believe in humanity a little bit more.'"

And so far, Arifai says his faith has proved well-placed. 80 percent of Blu's customers pay around $12 for a plate the restaurant values at between $12 and $16.

Before they order, mother and son in the Orbach family disagrees to what they plan to pay for their meals. But the clan's patriarch just appreciates the restaurant's gesture of thanking its patrons for a decade of business.

But as with any system reliant on a human being's honor, some customers have taken advantage of the offer, opting not to pay what they feel the meal is worth and instead eating a delicious dinner at a budget price.

"It happens maybe two or three times during the week," Arifai says. "But what're you going to do?"