This definition of the OpenRestaurant system is a community organized and run, free food restaurant. It is based on the ideals for feeding the hungry, and community spirit. Anyone with the spirit of an entrepreneur may attempt to create one in your neighborhood, as long as the population of willing, caring, and able bodied people is large enough. This may require a local population of several thousand people.

STARTUP
The first step to making this system a reality is by promoting it. This type of business is a hybrid of non-profit, public service, and food industry. There is usually no personal risk required on the part of the person trying to get it started. In many places, advertisement for free offers, community projects, or surveys, in local papers and online are free. Also, in many cases, there are free local or regional financial services for this kind of business. Finally, you must go to as many local meetings set up by community action groups, or convened by the mayor or other government officials for people to speak at. If you have some extra money, or if you can find someone to do advertising, it would help a lot.

As with all privately managed public services, you should not take any risks when purchasing equipment and location for your business. Make sure to carefully calculate all start-up expenses before making any commitments, and try to put up your financial bar graph in as many places as you can. Again, this can usually be done for free for this kind of business. If not, try to sell the idea to some merchants around town to this end. Wait for up to a year to start getting funding, and never dip into the account for any reason other than procuring the required equipment. Meanwhile, find convenient business locations available, and try to take into account where your largest demographic of interest is located, if possible. Additionally, if you have the means and interest to do so, start researching government incentive programs that may be available. Many governments not only approve of this kind of service, they also provide tax breaks, loans, and even grants.

TECHNOLOGY
Much of the technology described here is optional, but it can be used to maximize efficiency, and minimize accidents and risks. There are also some conflicting systems described below that may be switched between depending on the situation.

The first technology to be mentioned is the volunteer service scheduling counter, or "the OpenEmployment System". This may be seen readily before anyone comes in through the main doors, looking out into the parking lot. This strategic placement is meant to encourage people to participate in this system at the time when they are most likely to be motivated. The volunteer scheduling system needs to be very flexible and convenient because the people using it are willing to volunteer their time to this worthy cause. If it is not convenient enough, the restaurant may fail. Scheduling options should include one-time volunteering offers, weekly scheduling, and monthly scheduling. It should allow the volunteer to work for as little as one hour. When sufficient employment is achieved, everyone who was scheduled within the valid time-line must be notified. When operational hours begin, the OPEN sign should automatically light up. In the case of regular employment, a schedule should be made available on small cards, and online, and circulated to supporters.

The second technology is the donations booth. This booth is to be situated beside a waiting lounge around the corner from the door. People on their way out should be most likely to see this booth. This strategic placement is meant to encourage people to participate in the system at the time when they are most likely to be motivated. Any amount should be accepted by the donation booth, however, people should be expected to offer more in order to become a member. Alternatively, everyone who offers to volunteer should be given membership. Membership may expire within one year. It would be best not to raise the membership limit too high, perhaps around $5 for USA, which is not much. This is to encourage anyone to participate.

One alternative to the (above) managed employment model is the impromptu food preparation model. This system may be used for a number of events, from chef training courses, to catered community group meetings, to full featured parties. In order to access the kitchen at any time, you must be a member. You must enter your personalized access code, and then you may begin.

The last and most important technology is in the kitchen. It is probably also the most expensive. This technology is a user friendly automated system that allows anyone to prepare a recipe. This includes many cameras aimed at preparation surfaces, and a large interactive touch-screen walk-through system. The cameras are used for adding new recipes into the cooking guide system. It is self guided, which means you do not have to enter statistics or steps. This is based on a standard model of food preparation, with an automated voice available to say most generic preparation instructions, and a microphone for special terms. The kitchen consists of a line-workers waiting area with a long counter across one wall, and a long warming area across the other wall. An opening leads to the large spacious  preparation area with all of the cooking equipment.

• Food is stocked by an external delivery system, not by the front entrance. The system registers the product into its inventory via the bar-code. Different types of products, such as produce, are entered in slightly different ways to keep track of it all. A human being may not enter the building through any of these methods, and both doors may not be opened at once. A special color coded security system keeps track of this.

• To begin, simply press a big red button. A recording and an on-screen guide will notify you that you may press the button again in order to get a different language. Next, the on-screen guide shows you several options for how to proceed. You may select from several types of categories, or you may search for your desired recipe alphabetically.

• Each recipe has an icon next to it stating whether the ingredients are in stock or not. Each recipe page has a rotating sample image of what the dish looks like prepared, a list of ingredients required with little icons stating whether each ingredient is in stock or not, a skill level meter, and an estimated time required to make this recipe.

• Before cooking, the automated system registers all of the cooking materials to be used, and guides the user in proper food handling methods, with optional on-screen tutorials. It even tells you what pans and oven to use for each specific food, and programs the oven properly. All you have to do is put the right foods into the oven. When the food is finished cooking, an icon appears on an overhead display screen in the line-workers waiting area, accompanied by a tone and the name of the food in the appropriate language.

• Once someone has taken the food out of the oven, or finished preparing it, it may be served or left in the warmer/cooler bar at the line-workers area. Everything that is prepared is put into special containers with bar-codes. These bar-codes are scanned between the kitchen and the line, and between the line and the dining area. Another optional step would be the buffet bar. Scanners are placed at convenient places and heights to accommodate everyone.

FOOD MANAGEMENT & DINING
There are several possible ways to manage the purchase of food and the care of the dining area. Each possible method has its benefits and drawbacks. There are also many ways to determine which method works best in your situation. Conduct surveys periodically, and choose wisely, or the restaurant could fail.

The first, and simplest method to keep everything in stock is to simply create a model that orders all possible ingredients for all recipes. When an ingredient runs out, or is about to run out based on usage estimates, it is simply re-ordered. This may not be appropriate for fresh produce or for ingredients that can go bad rather quickly, or for seasonal and holiday foods.

Another approach, which may be equally simple as the above method, is the appropriation of ingredients from a local source upon demand. This is possible if local stores have quick response grocery delivery systems available in your area. In this case, members would simply be able to decide what they want to make in a few minutes, order it, and prepare the food when it arrives. One benefit to this method is that it would make it easier to manage produce items and items with a short shelf life. A drawback to this might be that people order expensive or unneeded things and drain the company account irresponsibly.

Finally, the system may be set up to order specific ingredients based on a weekly schedule. Workers may then be told to prepare specifically planned dishes at the specified times. This is the most common restaurant model, especially for buffet restaurants. The benefit of this model is that people will know what to expect when they come in to eat. One drawback to this model is that it may be especially difficult to prepare special orders. It may also limit the capacity to entertain special events in the community.

The two most important aspects of a restaurant dining area are cleanliness and freshness. The premises, including the floors, tables, food, trash cans, and restrooms, must all be clean and fresh. A janitorial staff may be needed for nightly cleaning and maintenance of everything in the building. This includes throwing out expired items, and making sure all of the mechanisms work. This idea applies to every aspect of a restaurant, and especially in this special case,when paying is completely optional.