Lentil As Anything Inc. (Lentil) was a group of pay what you want, not for profit vegetarian and vegan Australian restaurants founded by Shanaka Fernando. Restaurants were located in Melbourne and Sydney and operated on a similar model to pay what you can. The operation closed in February 2022 due to financial concerns and allegations of mismanagement. [1] Lentil is named after the Australian new wave band Mental As Anything.
Lentil was a multicultural, refugee-friendly, organisation founded in September 2000 and was registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. [2] [3] There were four Lentil locations, the first of which opened in 2000 in St. Kilda and the largest being located at the former Abbotsford Convent. Their most recent restaurant was opened in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury in 2015. A total of eight restaurants were active before their closure in 2022.
Live music, world music, films, and artworks were often performed and displayed at the restaurants, particularly at Abbotsford and Thornbury, where the restaurants became public meeting places with many patrons travelling from the north and east. [4] [5] It notably catered for the Green New Deal Conference in Melbourne in 2009. [6]
The restaurants wholly relied on the generosity of their patrons, volunteers and suppliers to operate. Patrons were asked to "pay what they feel" the meal, service and beverages are worth by contributing an amount of their choice into a box at the counter. The Abbotsford and St. Kilda locations initially faced large financial debt due to mismanagement and other factors, many of which were later resolved. [7]
In 2016, it was reported that its Newtown restaurant was operating at a loss as the average patron payment was less than $3. [8]
Also in 2016, the Abbotsford restaurant introduced a number of changes to prevent freeloading such as no BYO alcohol and asking people to move on if they spent an unreasonable amount of time at the restaurant. [9]
In 2010, The Naked Lentil, a documentary on the restaurant and its founder Shanaka Fernando was aired by SBS. [10] Fernando (with Greg Hill) published the book Lentil as Anything: Everybody Deserves a Place at the Table in 2012. [11]
Crown Melbourne is a casino and resort located on the south bank of the Yarra River, in Melbourne, Australia. Crown Casino is a subsidiary of Crown Resorts, and was the first casino of the now-international Crown brand.
Victoria Street is one of the major thoroughfares of inner Melbourne, running east–west for over six kilometres between Munster Terrace in North Melbourne and the Yarra River. The road is known as Victoria Parade for over one-and-a-half kilometres of its length, distinguishable with a wide reservation and tramway down the middle.
Glen Huntly Road is a main road in Melbourne, Victoria. It starts at Beach Road, Elwood, runs east–west through Elsternwick, Caulfield, Glen Huntly and ends in Carnegie.
The Esplanade Hotel, commonly known locally as "The Espy", is a hotel and music venue in the inner bayside suburb of St Kilda, in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Built in 1878, it overlooks Port Phillip from the Upper Esplanade. It is famed for its long history of live music, and served as the filming location for the live music trivia program Rockwiz.
Southbank tram depot is located in Southbank, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Operated by Yarra Trams, it is one of eight tram depots on the Melbourne tram network.
Robert John Maguire, also known as Robert John Thomas Maguire and commonly known as Father Bob, was an Australian Roman Catholic priest, community worker, and media personality from South Melbourne. From 1973 to 2012, Maguire was parish priest of Sts. Peter and Paul's Church in South Melbourne. Known for his social justice advocacy and care for the disadvantaged members of society, Maguire was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989 for his services to homeless people through the Open Family Foundation.
Richmond is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. It is currently a 13 km2 electorate in the inner east of Melbourne, encompassing the suburbs of Richmond, Cremorne, Burnley, Abbotsford, Collingwood, Clifton Hill, North Fitzroy and Fitzroy. Historically a very safe seat for the Labor Party, Richmond has in recent elections become increasingly marginal against the Greens, who eventually won the seat at the 2022 Victorian state election.
The St Kilda Pier in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, is home to a colony of Australian little penguins, the St Kilda Pavilion, as well as the Marina of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.
Jaime Robbie Reyne is an Australian singer-songwriter and actor.
The Anzac Day match is an annual Australian rules football match between Collingwood and Essendon, two clubs in the Australian Football League, held on Anzac Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The City of Collingwood was a local government area about 3 kilometres (2 mi) east-northeast of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of 4.48 square kilometres (1.73 sq mi), and existed from 1855 until 1994.
Annalakshmi is an international chain of vegetarian restaurants started in 1985 by Swami Shantanand Saraswathi and operating on the uncommon principle of trust in humanity, as it encourages patrons to pay what they believe is fair. The name derives from the Hindu goddess of abundance, as a compound word obtained from Annam (food) and Lakshmi. It is the culinary division of the non-profit organization Temple of Fine Arts (TFA).
The Yarra Trail is a shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians, which follows the Yarra River through the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Abbotsford Convent is located in Abbotsford, Victoria, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The Convent is in a bend of the Yarra River west of Yarra Bend Park, with the Collingwood Children's Farm to its north and east, the river and parklands to its south and housing to its west.
A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world. Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.
Pay what you want is a pricing strategy where buyers pay their desired amount for a given commodity. This amount can sometimes include zero. A minimum (floor) price may be set, and/or a suggested price may be indicated as guidance for the buyer. The buyer can select an amount higher or lower than the standard price for the commodity. Many common PWYW models set the price prior to a purchase, but some defer price-setting until after the experience of consumption. PWYW is a buyer-centered form of participatory pricing, also referred to as co-pricing.
Shanaka Fernando is a Sri Lankan-born Australian restaurateur and self-described "social challenger", best known for his founding of the pay what you can chain of restaurants in Melbourne known as "Lentil as Anything".