The health department was contacted, but the inspector who arrived happened to be an old vaudevillian. He advised Stewart that getting a license to open a coffeehouse was much easier than getting a license to open a theatre. Following this advice, La MaMa became Café La MaMa. Coffee and cake were served, admission was free, and any compensation that the actors received came from "passing the hat." Stewart's fashion designs and seamstress jobs subsidized the theatre during its first decade of operation.