I guess I don't understand the big deal about a 3% credit card fee and it crippling the owner. If most people use credit cards, the owner can just raise prices 3% to avoid loss.
My wife and I have dinner at the VK for around $70, including tip. 3% is about $2. If the VK raised their price of meals $2, would it really make any difference in their positioning in the market? Tips used to be 10%, now they are 20%. That's an increase of $7 on our meal. Recent (~5 years) inflation has raised the cost of food 10% - 30%. Restaurants just passed it along. These are just the going rates and, similarly, the cost of credit cards has long been baked into the system.
It was a nice quirk that the VK was cash only but it makes almost no difference to most people. I found it a minor annoyance because I had to check my wallet before I went there. If you walked into VK and had to use their ATM to get cash, you would probably pay a $2 fee to get your cash, so the cost is a wash. At other merchants demanding a 3% fee, I need to stop and get cash or carry a check. It's an petty annoyance and they shouldn't be annoying their customers. Offering a discount for people paying in cash seems like the way to go. If they want to protest the 3% CC fees, don't make me, the customer, carry your protest sign.
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