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Zayed Al-Hamad’s party of four is ready to order. The table plans to share the rosemary sourdough focaccia, fresh mozzarella, polpette, rigatoni alla n’duja and smoked olive carbonara spaghetti.

The bill for all that food? It doesn’t really matter, because tonight restaurantgoers can pay whatever they want at L’Oca d’Oro in Austin, Texas.

“My family in general, we don’t always have the most money to spend. So we don’t always get to go to somewhere nice when they come over,” Al-Hamad said on a Tuesday evening in February. “But I figured this is an opportunity to actually experience something a little better without having to shell out $150 for the four of us.”

Armand Daniels and Robin Wiley heard about the pay-what-you-will promotion on Instagram.

Robin Wiley (left) and Armand Daniels heard about the pay-what-you-will promotion on social media.

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“We didn’t have a really great Valentine’s Day,” Daniels said. “It was OK, but nothing out of the ordinary, nothing spectacular, so this is our Valentine’s date.”

The couple ate a spinach salad with pickled pineapple oranges and candied almonds — “It was awesome,” Wiley said — and ordered more. Daniels said they would make a decision about what to pay when they saw the final bill, but were considering paying less than full price.

“Things are a little bit tight,” said Daniels, who works as an actor and brand ambassador. “Jobs are harder and harder to find.”

L’Oca d’Oro, an Italian restaurant and bar in Austin’s Mueller neighborhood, introduced the pay-what-you-will night in December. In the fall, co-owners Adam Orman and Fiore Tedesco III were grappling with the effects of disruptive tariffs, rising food costs and a labor shortage — as well as their own increasing menu prices.

Fiore Tedesco III (left) and Adam Orman are co-owners of L’Oca d’Oro.

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Orman said the partners wanted to find a way to respond to the dwindling number of people able to afford dining out at restaurants.

“Getting drive-thru is not going out. Sitting down, being treated with hospitality, being a guest is a thing that everybody should be experiencing regularly, because it feels good,” he said. “This is a way of making sure that that is accessible for everyone.”

Tuesday-night diners at L’Oca d’Oro still pay full price for drinks, but they can order whatever they like off the regular food menu and choose how much to pay for it. Patrons are assessed a 20% service charge on their chosen total. (The restaurant charges the 20% pre-tax fee to all patrons to help fund the living wages, benefits and paid time off of staff members, Orman said.)

The partners understand that offering their products and services for free may not seem like a savvy business strategy. But Tedesco, who attributed the restaurant’s drop in volume over the past two years to political and financial instability, said he prefers pushing back on that conventional wisdom.

“There’s a way in which it seems like we should raise prices right now because everything’s more expensive, [that] we should lean that way,” Tedesco said.

Tedesco chops rosemary in the kitchen. He hopes the pay-what-you-will promotion can be a way to meet the current affordability and social challenges facing Americans.

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“I feel really confident and I feel lighter and more loving and more full and more generous in practicing the spirit of leaning that other way,” he said, “of saying, no, the lesson here is this is for everybody. This really is a time to be less inhibited about going out.”

Restaurant food, hold the restaurant

Americans are increasingly passing up on dining out. A YouGov report from October found that 37% of U.S. diners said they were dining out less often than they had a year earlier, while only 8% said they were going out more.

Rising menu prices and a desire to save money were the top reasons why people were staying home, the research group reported.

When they do dine out, most customers are getting their food to-go. According to data released by the National Restaurant Association last year, nearly three out of every four meals served by U.S. restaurants were takeout orders.

Restaurants of course depend on customers for business, but diners also rely on restaurants for the social stimulation and respite from domestic life they provide, says Princeton University anthropology professor Hanna Garth, who has conducted research on food access in Los Angeles.

Two guests sit at a table at L’Oca d’Oro. More than a third of Americans are dining out less often than they did last year, according to report from YouGov.

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“For a lot of people, it’s just about breaking from the routine and the monotony of eating at home. For a lot of women, it’s about alleviating the burden of the work of cooking a meal and cleaning up after the meal,” she said of the L.A. residents she’s spoken to. “And I think for a lot of people it’s also a social activity.”

Restaurants are also what’s known as a “third space,” an area outside of our home or workplace where we interact with others. When restaurants become inaccessible, those incidental social exchanges they offer also disappear, Garth said. Think chatting with the hostess and wait staff, or asking the people at the next table how their food was.

“Those connections, even though they’re teeny-tiny connections that seem like they don’t matter that much, they’re a really really big deal for making us feel like we belong to a community and we’re connected with others around us,” Garth said.

Orman and Tedesco said they hope L’Oca d’Oro’s pay-what-you-will promotion — a concept that’s been around for a while in the food service world — can be used now to meet the current affordability and social challenges facing Americans.

‘It just doesn’t feel like it should be possible’

Erin Weber and Michelle Valencia were at L’Oca d’Oro for a “girls night,” Valencia said. She works for the city’s public health department, and Weber is an editor who also attends graduate school for clinical social work.

Michelle Valencia (left) and Erin Weber visited the restaurant for a “girls night.”

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They had been to the restaurant once before, Valencia said, “but when we saw this we were like, ‘oh that’s a really cool special.’”

Weber, a native Austinite who said she’s enjoyed watching the city’s food scene evolve, praised the restaurant’s pay-what-you-will experiment. “This is a really great way for people from … all walks of life to just be able to enjoy amazing food,” she said.

When their bill came around 8 p.m., Weber and Valencia decided to pay $100 on their $117 tab, splitting it down the middle. “I guess we’re seeing it as like our happy hour total,” Weber said, “you know, a little bit of a discount.”

That night, the restaurant made $70 less than what it would have had it charged full price for food, Orman said later. He estimates that most Tuesday diners typically pay about two-thirds of their actual food bill, while only a couple of customers pay far less and many people fork over around what they owe.

Chris Ortiz and Rickyann Ramos, who were celebrating two years of marriage, said they intended to cover their whole bill. “I think we would just fully take care of it from our end,” Ortiz said, “because we’re in a position to do so and hopefully that can help others out.”

According to Orman, the restaurant typically ends pay-what-you-will nights earning less than the full menu price of the food they served, but once they made $12 more. He said the partners are happy with the math, and the normally slower weekday is seeing an average increase in traffic and revenue since the promotion began. The restaurant is even considering expanding the pay-what-you-will concept over the summer as they introduce new menu items.

Since the pay-what-you-will promotion began, the normally slower weekday is seeing an average increase in traffic at the restaurant.

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As his table prepared to order, Zayed Al-Hamad marveled at the deal they were getting.

“I’ll be honest, there’s a level of guilt, you know? I go to order, and I have to fight through this feeling of, like, ‘am I allowed to do this?’” he said. “I’m not going to write $10 down, but man it just doesn’t feel like it should be possible.”

Al-Hamad, who works as a menu planner connecting businesses with caterers, said he uses rental assistance to afford his apartment in the building adjacent to the restaurant. Tonight at L’Oca d’Oro he’ll pay what he can, but as Al-Hamad gets on better financial footing in the future, he hopes to chip in even more at places like this.

“As I continue to get to live in this city, I hope I’m able to support these businesses more and more, and hopefully I can be part of the reason why they’re actually able to afford to do these things,” he said.

Zayed Al-Hamad was excited to have an affordable and nice restaurant to take his family out to dinner.

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Austin Metcalf, the Frisco teen fatally stabbed during a track meet at Kuykendall Stadium in April 2025, was honored posthumously at the Memorial High School graduation on May 21, 2026.

Austin Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter, accepted the diploma on behalf of his brother shortly after accepting his own, followed by a standing ovation.

The trial for Karmelo Anthony, the teen accused of fatally stabbing fellow student Austin Metcalf during a Frisco ISD track meet, is scheduled to begin Monday, June 1, according to Collin County court records.

Witnesses told police the two 17-year-olds had argued during the meet, that Austin Metcalf pushed Anthony, and that Anthony then stabbed him once in the chest. Anthony immediately complied with the officers, and while being detained, reportedly acknowledged what happened and asked whether Austin Metcalf would survive and whether the incident might be considered self‑defense.

Anthony, who is facing a first-degree murder charge, has been on house arrest since being released on a reduced bond on April 14. If convicted, Anthony could face a possible sentence of 5-99 years or life in prison. In the Texas criminal justice system, 17-year-olds are considered adults. Anthony, a student at Frisco Centennial High School, was not allowed to participate in senior graduation activities; however, Next Generation Action Network said an agreement was reached with the district for him to receive his high school diploma.

The case has drawn widespread public attention, generating intense community reaction, extensive online discussion, and sustained media coverage – factors that led the court to issue a gag order last year and a Collin County judge in April to impose strict rules on media access, security, and courtroom conduct in advance of the trial.  

On the campaign trail in North Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton vowed that he would continue to fight for his supporters in Washington, if they elect him to the U.S. Senate. At a recent stop in Little Elm before the conservative group Restore The Republic, Paxton pointed to his record of suing the Obama and Biden administrations — including on President Biden’s last day in office. 

“That was the 107th lawsuit against Joe Biden in four years. For those of you who don’t know math, that’s a lot of lawsuits and we won 80% of these,” he said.

Vickie Costa, a Paxton supporter, praised his record. 

“I totally believe in him. He’s a good man. He’s done so many good things. On the other hand, I feel John Cornyn has been there a long time and done absolutely nothing for the state of Texas,” she said. 

When asked what Paxton has done that resonates with her, Costa said, “I think of a lot of different things, when he sued Biden, also the suits he’s done against Obama.” 

Paxton has declined all requests by CBS News Texas for a one-on-one interview. During his three campaign stops in North Texas in the past ten days, Paxton would not answer local reporters’ questions. Paxton regularly grants interviews to conservative media. 

Cornyn has sharply criticized Paxton for his ethical and marital problems. While Paxton was acquitted in the 2023 impeachment trial in the Texas Senate, the Attorney General’s office will have to pay at least $6.7 million to Paxton’s four former top hand-picked officials in his office who became whistleblowers. Paxton fired them after they went to the FBI to report alleged wrongdoing, something he denied. Federal authorities investigated Paxton during the Biden administration, but he was not charged. 

The Attorney General’s wife, State Senator Angela Paxton (R-McKinney) filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds” in a post on X.

Paxton’s supporters like Steve Brown are sticking with him. 

“If I was looking for [Paxton] to be my pastor, if I was looking for him to be my marriage counselor, if I was looking for him to do those jobs, yeah, sure, I’d be more concerned with what Cornyn is saying,” Brown said. “But the reality is, I’m not. I’m looking for somebody to be a bulldog who goes to Washington, D.C. that makes sure D.C. understands Texas will not be trampled. You will have to come and take it.”  

When asked if Cornyn is a fighter, Brown said, “He hasn’t done that in 40 years, why would he start tomorrow?” 

Brown said Paxton is a fighter. 

“I know it. Look at his history,” Brown said.

At Paxton’s rally in Dallas on Monday, State Representative Katrina Pierson (R-Rockwall) said she is backing Paxton because he is a fighter, and she encouraged supporters to go to the polls. 

“We have to get out and vote because if our people get out and vote, we will win,” she said.

Paxton criticized Cornyn’s record, saying he hasn’t accomplished anything in his long political career. 

“If you just take any two weeks that I’ve been Attorney General, other than Christmas and Thanksgiving, I’ve accomplished more than any two-week period, John Cornyn can pick it, than he’s accomplished in 42 years,” Paxton said.

President Trump announced he was endorsing Paxton moments before the Attorney General appeared at a previously scheduled rally in Allen on Tuesday morning. State Representative Keresa Richardson (R-McKinney) repeated what Paxton’s supporters have said. 

“Nobody, nobody has fought harder for Texas than Ken Paxton. I don’t care if it’s for parents’ rights, immigration, election integrity, you name it,” Richardson said.

Another Paxton supporter, Sandra Hammer, put it this way: “Ken Paxton, on any issue that he gets, is a dog with a bone.” 

When asked why that was important to her, Hammer said, “I think people get up there and forget why we elected them. They need to get up there and represent us, and Ken Paxton, I know, will do that.”

Paxton has repeatedly questioned Cornyn’s support for President Trump, and said the Senator only changed his tune last year after he entered the race to challenge the incumbent. 

“The fake John Cornyn is going away in about seven days,” Paxton said.

Regardless of who wins the runoff on Tuesday, one of these long-time Republican elected officials will leave office at the end of the year when their terms expire.