This sounds like an excellent idea to me: on Thursday, between 5 and 10 pm, the menu at all of CHOW Foods’ restaurants will be priced according to the DOW at the closing of the market. In an email yesterday, they explained the deal: “The lower the Dow closes on Thursday, the less your entrée costs–no food on the menu will be priced more than the Dow. If it closes at 8300 (gulp!) then you wont pay any more than $8.30 for any item on our food menus. If Chowin’ on the DOW isn’t enough to whet your appetite, keep in mind that our house red & white wine, draft beers and well drinks will be priced at the NASDAQ close for the day. If it dips to 1250, then our depression era pricing on these libations will be just a buck twenty five!”

Insert all sorts of comments about main streets and bailouts and Joe Sixpack here, if you want. CHOW’s restaurants are The 5 Spot in Queen Anne, Atlas Foods in U Village, Mioposto in Mount Baker, Coastal Kitchen in Capitol Hill, Endolyne Joe’s in West Seattle, and The High Life in Ballard, which covers pretty much all of Seattle, so there’s got to be one nearby. At least we can all get something good out of the awful market.