Customers at this beloved restaurant can pay whatever they want for anything they eat

Businesses are commonly created to profit and provide quality services in return. However, this restaurant in Brimscombe, United Kingdom is doing things a tad bit differently, especially with its payment method. It is running solely on the sense of community. "The Long Table" is a well-known diner that is loved by the locals and it also serves as a community center in the town of Stroud which is located in South West England. This restaurant has opted for a "pay-as-you-can" model for their business where a customer can simply order their meal and reveal whatever they would like to pay after collecting the meal token as they wait for the food, per My Modern Met.

The restaurant is important for the community as it serves quality food at the desirable rate chosen by the customers and employees a total of 22 full-time and part-time staff members. They serve lunches five days a week and a part of the restaurant is open every morning to let people enjoy their coffee and cake. For Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, "The Long Table" offers hot dinners too. They also have a system of changing their menus each day that includes vegan and gluten-free food options at times and the customers always walk in for a surprise.

Now some of us might wonder how this establishment got its interesting name. "The Long Table" got its name from all the actual long tables that are placed at the center of the diner. The place not only serves hearty meals but the seating arrangements encourage customers to sit across from one another and enjoy their food while having a chat. “At The Long Table, community and great food sit side by side. Whoever you are, whatever your story, pull up a chair and join us as we evolve the very notion of what a restaurant can be,” the description on the restaurant's website reads. "We’re all about radical hospitality, something we’d love you to experience. Because amazing things happen when we eat together."

However, the restaurant has been going through tough times lately as they are dealing with an eviction notice after the mill they repurposed to open the diner was sold to a new landlord. The owner of the place has time until August 25, 2024, to vacate the restaurant but before that, they continue to host a lot of community events such as "Operation Fill-the-Mill" which is providing the people in the area to make some memories before they shift to a new location.

The co-owner of "The Long Table," Tom Herbert, is not losing hope anytime soon and they have written an open letter to the new landlord in the hopes for the future of the restaurant at Brimscombe Mill. "At a time when almost every aspect of our lives is ruled by the logic of profit, consumerism and growth at any cost, the Grace Network and the organizations it has nurtured offer an alternative. We are deeply concerned about the loss of a community space that has become a haven," the letter read.

The restaurant further wrote about how they hope their "combined voices will help the landlord to understand what Brimscombe Mill means to them as a community." The letter further reads, "Collectively we hope a solution can be found which means that this loved, and very much needed, community resource can remain at Brimscombe Mill. If that is without a possibility, then we implore you to allow them more time to find a new location to recreate the wonderful and essential hub they have worked so hard to build."

According to The Guardian, Herbert revealed that the community had put in thousands of hours of work and as much as £300,000 in cash over three years to transform Brimscombe Mill from a derelict site into a bustling social center. “It had been derelict for 30 years, roof falling in, no services, no electricity, no water,” Herbert told the outlet. “It had been used as a place for local kids to hang out and play their music. People were sleeping rough in it, it had human excrement in it. This was the place that no one else wanted. The work was done in good faith."