Texas Diner Takes Prices Off Its Menu, Asks Customers To Pay What God Wants, And Triples Its Revenue

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What would Jesus pay?


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A diner in Texas is putting its faith in a new form of economic self-determination: Pay what God wants.

Dana Parris, owner of the Just Cookin restaurant in Dallas, Texas, decided to take the prices off her menus. Instead of having a set number, she asks her customers to pay what they think God would like.

"He just came to me and said I don't need to do it, I need to let him do it," Parris told the Gaston Gazette of Gaston County, North Carolina. "The way I could show I was giving God control was to give him control of the cash register."

The Good Lord has been something of a cash cow for Parris. Revenues tripled in the first week, she says.

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While pay-what-you-want-restaurants are starting to become a trend, like Lentil As Anything in Melbourne, Australia, SAME Cafe in Denver, Colorado, or Jon Bon Jovi's Soul Kitchen in Red Bank, New Jersey, the diner is the only faith-based one we've come across.

Dallas residents are taking kindly to Parris's new policy. As the Gaston Gazette reports:

A few people haven't had the money to pay what might be considered "full price" for a meal, Parris said. She doesn't mind serving them.

Others don't seem to mind paying a little more.

A nurse came in short on cash and left with a drink and a hot dog at a bargain price, Parris said. Two days later the same nurse handed over $20 for an identical meal.

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Parris hopes that the good news will keep on coming.

"I pray that showing this little bit of faith will catch on and other people will have faith. I hope people will see his love shining here," Parris said. "Sometimes you just have to give control back to God."

While it's certainly a novel strategy, it's unclear whether it will be sustainable. Restaurant chain Panera Bread suspended its pay-what-you-can experiment last year when payments dropped to just 75% of the retail price, and New York City's only "pay what you feel" restaurant, Santorini Grill, shuddered its doors in 2012 after just four months of operation.

Correction: The Just Cookin diner is in Dallas, North Carolina, not Dallas, Texas.