Modern Times Café, the Minneapolis restaurant that removed menu prices and offered free meals while protesting ICE operations, will close permanently by the end of the year. Owner Dylan Alverson announced the coming closure on social media Saturday.

“For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist,” Alverson wrote. “I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is.”

This is Dylan Alverson, he opened a restaurant called the “Modern Times Cafe” he ran it for 15 years then decided to prove socialism works, and protest ICE.. so he removed all menu pricing making it a donation only restaurant.

For six months, the restaurant served 30,000 meals (with 40-50% of customers paying nothing) and drew national attention • . However, the model had significant challenges, including infrastructure breakdowns, neighborhood complaints about crowds and safety, and the owner exhausting his options he had to close it down . He cited that he couldn't compromise the business's core values of
"creativity over cost and kindness over profit" while staying financially viable He eventually reopened with prices back in the menu but removed all tipping — Leah Rain ✝️ ️ (@LeahRain77) October 21, 2026

Alverson said he plans to spend the next two months celebrating the business, which has operated for 16 years. He also intends to discuss ways that a restaurant built around the same principles might continue operating in the future.

“The only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it can no longer exist,” Alverson wrote.

The closure announcement follows an ambitious attempt to run the restaurant without traditional prices. Alverson announced on Instagram in January that the business, rebranded as Post Modern Times, would become a “free and donation-based restaurant” open to everyone “except ICE.”

That move was framed as a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations taking place in Minnesota. The decision was also partly a response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

“We absolutely cannot go on as we have. I am sick of generating money for the soldiers in our streets and for a government that won't protect us — a government who is actively inflicting daily harm on its citizens,” Alverson wrote. “Effective tomorrow, we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city.”

 

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The decision came after Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents. A makeshift memorial was later established in the Minneapolis area where Pretti, 37, had been shot.

Modern Times Café continued operating without prices for about six months before briefly shutting down in July. When the establishment reopened in August, it returned to using prices for its meals.

The return of menu prices did not end the restaurant’s free meal effort. Modern Times Café announced that it would continue providing 25 free meals each day after reopening.

By October, Alverson told The New York Times that the restaurant was operating with a “zero profit margin.” He hoped the establishment could provide a model that other restaurants might eventually use.

“If I can create a fundraising mechanism that can raise money to provide hospitality, we can take that program and add restaurants to it,” Alverson said.

The process, however, placed substantial demands on the restaurant’s staff, according to Alverson. Customers sometimes waited as long as two hours for a meal, and roughly half of the meals served would usually be provided for free.

Neighbors also raised concerns about the restaurant’s approach. Some worried that homeless people and people addicted to drugs would take advantage of the free meal offer.

In comments to Fox News Digital, Alverson stood by the remarks he had made to The New York Times. He suggested that the broader issue was the number of other independent restaurants also facing serious financial pressure.

“I think a bigger question right now is how many independent restaurants are close to collapse?” Alverson said.

For Modern Times Café, the answer has now arrived. After the price-free experiment, a temporary closure, the return of menu prices and the continued distribution of free meals, Alverson says the restaurant will shut its doors for good by the end of the year.

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