Bon Jovi Opens "Pay What You Can" JBJ Soul Kitchen,

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:19:44 AM EST
Tags: Bon Jovi (all tags)

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Bon Jovi has opened his "pay what you can" JBJ Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, N.J. The menus offer upscale, gourmet food with no prices listed. Instead, an envelope is left on the table where diners can leave any amount, or nothing.

"This is not a soup kitchen," [Bon Jovi] emphasizes. "You can come here with the dignity of linens and silver, and you're served a healthy, nutritious meal. This is not burgers and fries.... If you can't afford to eat, you can bus tables, you can wait tables, you can work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef," he said.

...."If you come in and say, 'I'm hungry,' we'll feed you," Bon Jovi said. "But we're going to need you to do something. It's very important to what we're trying to achieve....This is not an entitlement thing......This is about empowering people because you have to earn that gift certificate.""

The restaurant's website is here. The details are here.

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Bon Jovi Opens "Pay What You Can" JBJ Soul Kitchen, | 32 comments (32 topical)

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Bravo (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Dadler on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:23:04 AM EST

Don't even like their music that much, but this is top notch humanity. There's a place in San Diego, called The Big Kitchen (LINK), where the owner, known as Judy the Beauty on Duty, will definitely give you a meal if you can't afford it. If you're ever in SD, give them some biz, great pics on the walls, and Whoopi Goldberg used to work there back in the day.

Been tried before (none / 0) (#31)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 03:24:24 PM EST

and the business folded. Better luck to this latest effort.


Doubt this one will (none / 0) (#32)
by Dadler on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 03:31:45 PM EST

Kind of has a committed and well funded owner.


Yes indeed (none / 0) (#34)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 04:32:29 PM EST

If you don't have to depend on what is left in the envelop you can do about whatever you want.

: I think you miss the point a bit (5.00 / 0) (#35)
by Dadler on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 04:47:43 PM EST

And, BTW, many co-ops function well and prosperously all across this great land of ours.

There Is a Town that Did the Same... (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by ScottW714 on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:21:57 AM EST

... thing with a grocery store. It's was more of a buyers club, but ran on zero profit and owned by the town. In order to use the store each person had to volunteer so many hours a week.

It was on the Today Show and for the life of me I can't find it.

It was a touching story about families that normally couldn't afford groceries being so thankful for the couple that started the co-op.

I believe it was in the North East and I wish I could find the story, but Google has become so fricken commercialized it's getting harder to find what I need.

: I know, right? (5.00 / 0) (#15)
by sj on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:35:00 AM EST

Google has pretty much outlived it's usefulness.
I used to be part of a coop that distributed about $60 worth of groceries (mostly produce) once a month. The cost was $6 and two hours of volunteer time. It could even be for the neighbor down the street as long as the neighbor documented the time. And if you didn't get your time in, you could volunteer at the coop on distribution day. A lot of elderly got their fresh vegetables there.

Indeed it is... (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by kdog on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:31:16 AM EST

for the nation, if certain recent efforts are successful.

Perhaps some of you commenters (5.00 / 2) (#37)
by Jeralyn on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 07:39:54 PM EST

could do a little research about Bon Jovi's philanthropic deeds over the years, such as the houses he's built in Philadelphia before ignorantly criticizing and mis-characterizing him.

Further note: Since he happens to be one of my favorite musicians with the best face in rock, I am not about to host cheap shots at him.

In addition to his contributions to the less fortunate, he raised $1 million for John Kerry at a fundraiser at his home in 2004 and helped Hillary reduce her campaign debt. (More Here.)

Via CBSS:

Clinton stood beside the rocker in Philadelphia on Thursday as he announced his project, called the Phase V Homeownership Project, to renovate 15 decaying homes -- "messes of row homes," Bon Jovi said -- on two blocks on the city's north side. The rock star received the City of Brotherly Love Award from Mayor John F. Street on Thursday night.
Last year, he and Bon Jovi bandmate Richie Sambora surprised Oprah Winfrey with a $1 million donation to her Angel Network and Habitat for Humanity to build 28 homes in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged town of Houma, La.

Doesn't BJ know (none / 0) (#2)
by Edger on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:43:24 AM EST

how subversive this idea is? How the h*ll can anyone make derivatives out of this to fleece people with? His customers will never be hungry enough to be desperate enough.

Must be anti-American, commie-pinko, or something... terrist.

The sentence that begins with, "the menus (none / 0) (#3)
by Anne on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:44:34 AM EST

offer upscale..." while appearing in color, like a hyperlink, isn't one - at least for me; this might explain why the margins are completely busted for me.

: Thanks (none / 0) (#4)
by sj on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:48:27 AM EST

Internet access here has been going up and down and I wasn't sure if it was me or if it was the page.

He had his (none / 0) (#5)
by SOS on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 10:51:32 AM EST

New York City duplex penthouse on the market with a mind-melding asking price of around $45,000,000.

Maybe he got it sold and is "giving back" something to society. Or whatever it is these days.

Read the article linked to in the post (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by Edger on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:02:16 AM EST

"The restaurant is the latest undertaking by the New Jersey rocker's Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which has built 260 homes for low-income residents in recent years."

jonbonjovisoulfoundation.org


What is Your Point ? (5.00 / 3) (#7)
by ScottW714 on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:08:19 AM EST

Only the poor can help the poor ?

Maybe I am reading something into your post, but it seems utterly pointless to post the value of his property when the discussion is about a man giving to his fellow man.


That kinda blind hatin'... (5.00 / 2) (#9)
by kdog on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:15:55 AM EST

on the well off does nobody no favors.

Athletes, actors, musicians...I don't fault them their sometimes high earnings in the slightest, they earned it honestly spreading joy.

Our beef with some of the wealthy is how they got wealthy...spreading misery and pain, rigging markets, general scamming.


Isn't (none / 0) (#10)
by Wile ECoyote on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:19:47 AM EST

your last paragraph blind hatin'?


: It's hatin'... (5.00 / 2) (#12)
by kdog on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:25:36 AM EST

but it ain't blind my friend.

: My Hate is Not Blind ot Deaf, and Definetly not... (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by ScottW714 on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:37:09 AM EST

...misdirected.
Anyone that thinks hating people that use their wealth to increase human suffer is even in the same dimension as people who use their wealth to decrease human suffering should go by a the most idiotic cartoon character ever created.
And for the record, I don't think SOS was hatin'.

Not sure what his (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by sj on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 11:13:26 AM EST

real estate holdings have to do with his on-going efforts to "give back".

And really? You had to put quotes around "giving back"? Any acts of generosity are to be celebrated. At every level. Especially in the "me first" world that Reagan first ushered in.


sj, he probably has (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by Zorba on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 12:38:46 PM EST

his petty little gripes about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and about Warren Buffett giving the bulk of his fortune to the Gates Foundation, too. And about their efforts to persuade other billionaires to do the same. Or maybe his gripes are that they're not giving to his favorite causes, who knows?


Yeah, dontcha just hate those (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by NYShooter on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 01:09:31 PM EST

Phony "holier than thou" do-gooders giving money to charitable groups just to prove they're better than you are?

I'm with Limbaugh on this one when he mocked Michael Fox's for twitching on camera just to get our sympathy.

Like Rush says, "get up off your lazy a$$es, and get a job."

"I did"

: LOL! (none / 0) (#27)
by Zorba on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 01:17:03 PM EST

n/t

Geez, (none / 0) (#21)
by bocajeff on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 12:35:45 PM EST

What a great thing Bon Jovi is doing. Kind of like Churches, Synagogues and Mosques have been doing for centuries (though not enough).

: And WITHOUT the proselytizing (5.00 / 1) (#23)
by sj on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 12:39:27 PM EST

Good for BJB, giving back. (none / 0) (#25)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 12:49:19 PM EST

Red Bank is a really upscale burb, I'm surprised he chose it for the location of this type of eatery. But, then again, maybe not, maybe it takes a certain number of full-price meals to subsidise the free/partial-price meals.

Uh, nevermind, JBJ lives in RB... (none / 0) (#28)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 01:50:08 PM EST

full-price meals to subsidise free/partial-prices? (none / 0) (#29)
by Edger on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 02:12:02 PM EST

Robin Hood?


: Ya. JBJ is Robin Hood. (5.00 / 1) (#33)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 04:22:57 PM EST

The next time (none / 0) (#36)
by lentinel on Thu Oct 20, 2011 at 05:28:24 PM EST

I see some guy holding a sign, "Will work for food", I'll know where to send him.

I was thinking about this last night (none / 0) (#38)
by coast on Fri Oct 21, 2011 at 10:10:31 AM EST

I think this idea is great and wish him the best of luck, but I can't help but think the Foundation has opened itself up to all sorts of issues that it might not have thought of (or maybe they have since they have the cash to hire some pretty good advisors). First, what kind of liability do they open themselves up to by having non-employees work jobs that have the potential for injury? Secondly, an individual receives a meal, which has value, in return for services. I believe the IRS would take the position that the value of the meal is wages. If you have a regular customer who comes in two or three times a week and each time works off the value of the meal, they will easily exceed the $600 minimum for issuance of a 1099.

While I applaude his efforts, I just can't help but think something out there is going to trip this up.

: I wouldn't worry too much (none / 0) (#39)
by NYShooter on Sat Oct 22, 2011 at 05:35:54 PM EST

Bon Jovi has a pretty good brain in that good looking head of his.
I'm sure a phone call to his attorney was step one in his plans to open this place.