Joe McNamee: The traditional restaurant model is irreparably broken

Is this a solution for the economic woes of Irish hospitality the ‘pay-what-you-want’ restaurant?

Donal O’Gara and Virginia O’Gara of My Goodness smile behind the counter of the Quay Co-Op restaurant in Cork city, Picture: Chani Anderson

Earlier this year, restaurateur Dylan Alverson decided to stop charging for food at his Minneapolis cafe, Modern Times.

He called it an “absurd business move”, born in the chaos of the ICE raids, amidst tear gas and flash grenades on the same snowbound street where Alex Pretti was shot dead by ICE agents. In the days after the shooting he declared his 15-year-old cafe, a local institution, would be “free and donation-based … for the remainder of the government occupation”, as a way to avoid paying sales tax to a government “actively inflicting daily harm on its citizens”. It was to be re-christened Post-Modern Times.