--- title: Restaurant Menu Has No Prices So Customers Pay What God Tells Them to Pay description: "Revenues are up," says the owner canonical: https://time.com/3486689/restaurant-where-god-controls-cash-register/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-09T22:05:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:43.637Z og:title: Restaurant Menu Has No Prices So Customers Pay What God Tells Them to Pay og:description: "Revenues are up," says the owner og:url: https://time.com/3486689/restaurant-where-god-controls-cash-register/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Restaurant Menu Has No Prices So Customers Pay What God Tells Them to Pay twitter:description: "Revenues are up," says the owner twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Restaurant Menu Has No Prices So Customers Pay What God Tells Them to Pay > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 9, 2014 10:05 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 9, 2014 10:05 PM UTC A North Carolina restaurant has announced it’s putting the business in the hands of God and letting customers pay what they want for their meals. According to a Sept. 29 post on the [Facebook page for](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story%5Ffbid=474614106014109&id=195684670573722) the restaurant Just Cookin in Dallas, North Carolina: --- > “” --- “I gave Him control of the cash register,” Dana Parris told the [Gaston _Gazette_](http://www.gastongazette.com/local-diner-owner-turns-cash-register-over-to-god-video-1.382499?tc=cr). “There’s been a few people who got to eat who didn’t have the money. And there’s been a lot of people who have overpaid what the normal price would be. We’ve been blessed. Revenues are up.” This unique policy is a complete 180º from the [restaurant customers who claim](http://business.time.com/2013/11/18/worst-restaurant-customers-ever-use-religion-racism-as-excuses-for-not-tipping-waiters/) their faith forbids them from paying for their entire meals because the servers’ lifestyles go against their religion. Also worth noting: the “pay what you wish” concept, most often associated with museums, [does exist](http://www.kgw.com/videos/life/style/2014/07/22/11867850/) at some eateries. Panera has been running pay-what-you-wish restaurants across the U.S. for the past four years, so the neediest people can get something to eat and even volunteer to work there as payment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3486689/restaurant-where-god-controls-cash-register/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3486689/restaurant-where-god-controls-cash-register/"},"headline":"Restaurant Menu Has No Prices So Customers Pay What God Tells Them to Pay","datePublished":"2014-10-09T22:05:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:43.637Z","description":"\"Revenues are up,\" says the owner","url":"https://time.com/3486689/restaurant-where-god-controls-cash-register/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Bizarre"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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