On the second floor of a Ghost Building at 4200 Circuit Boulevard, there is a cafeteria that serves 200 meals a day to no one. It has been doing this for approximately seven years. The kitchen is professionally equipped — commercial ovens, a six-burner range, a walk-in refrigerator, a prep station with stainless steel counters, and a dishwasher that runs three cycles per day cleaning dishes that have not been used. The dining room seats 120 at thirty tables, each set with napkin dispensers, salt and pepper shakers, and laminated table-tent menus that list the day's offerings.

The food is real. A kitchen staff of four — two cooks, one prep worker, one dishwasher — arrives at 5:30 AM and prepares breakfast service (7:00-9:00 AM), lunch service (11:30 AM-1:30 PM), and an afternoon snack service (3:00-4:00 PM). The menu is varied and competent: scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, rotating entrees for lunch (pasta, stir-fry, grilled proteins, vegetarian options), fresh fruit and baked goods for afternoon snack. The food is placed in serving stations with heat lamps or refrigeration as appropriate. At the end of each service window, unconsumed food — which is all of it — is disposed of according to food safety regulations. Daily food waste: approximately 80 kilograms.

The kitchen staff are professionals who take their work seriously. Head cook Ade Nakamura-Breki has worked the cafeteria for five years and maintains a recipe database of over 300 dishes that she rotates through a seasonal cycle. She adjusts portions to minimize waste, though minimizing waste in a cafeteria with zero diners means something different than it usually does. She has reduced daily waste from 120 kilograms to 80 through careful menu planning. She is proud of this achievement. When asked who she is cooking for, she says, "The menu." She means this literally — her job, as she understands it, is to execute the menu, and the menu does not specify that anyone must eat the results.

The procurement system orders fresh ingredients three times weekly from standard food service distributors. The invoices are paid automatically. The budget — approximately Φ180,000 per month — is allocated from a departmental account that belongs to a corporate entity called Meridian Dining Services LLC, which has no parent company, no board of directors, and no purpose beyond operating this cafeteria. The entity was incorporated in 2218. Its incorporation documents list a registered agent who died in 2220. The agent's death did not affect the entity's operations because the entity's operations require no human oversight. The money flows. The food is made. Nobody eats it. The cycle continues.