Minneapolis Restaurant Shutting Down After Feeding ICE Raid Protesters

WHO:

NY Post - Modern Times Café is a Minneapolis restaurant that attempted to eliminate prices.

Fox News - Owner Dylan Alverson announced the restaurant’s closure and wrote about its future on social media.

Fox News - Alverson said he would spend the next two months celebrating the 16-year-old business and discussing ways for a business like it to continue.

Fox News - The restaurant’s January rebrand was called Post Modern Times.

Fox News - The article identifies Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents in connection with the restaurant’s protest and the killing of Alex Pretti.

WHAT:

NY Post - Modern Times Café announced it would close for good by the end of the year.

Fox News - Alverson said he had tried for six years to keep Modern Times operating and had “exhausted every option” without compromising its core fundamentals.

Fox News - Alverson wrote: “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.”

Fox News - In January, the restaurant announced it would operate as a “free and donation based restaurant,” welcoming everyone “except ICE.”

Fox News - The restaurant operated without prices for about six months, briefly closed in July, and used prices again after reopening in August; it continued to offer 25 free meals per day.

Fox News - By October, Alverson told The New York Times the restaurant was operating at a “zero profit margin” as a potential model for other restaurants.

WHERE:

NY Post - Modern Times Café is in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Fox News - The article describes ICE operations and federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota and Minneapolis.

WHY:

Fox News - The restaurant’s free-meal and donation-based operation was a protest against ICE operations in Minnesota, partly in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Fox News - Alverson said the restaurant could not continue as it had, writing: “I am sick of generating money for the soldiers in our streets and for a government that won't protect us.”

Fox News - The closure announcement followed Alex Pretti’s shooting and killing by Border Patrol agents.

HOW:

Fox News - Alverson said a fundraising mechanism could raise money to provide hospitality and potentially be adopted by other restaurants.

Fox News - Alverson said the model taxed staff and led to customer waits of up to two hours; half of the meals would usually be free.

Fox News - Neighbors raised concerns that homeless people and people with drug addictions might take advantage of the offer.

Fox News - Alverson said the broader concern was how many independent restaurants were close to collapse.

(UPDATED October 22, 2026 10:12 UTC)

Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant known for eliminating menu prices, plans to close by the end of the year. Owner Dylan Alverson said he had spent six years trying to keep the 16-year-old business open and had exhausted every option without abandoning its core principles. In January, it rebranded as Post Modern Times and offered free, donation-based meals in protest of federal immigration enforcement, welcoming everyone except ICE. The protest came amid enforcement operations in Minnesota and followed the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who was shot by Border Patrol agents. For about six months, the café operated without prices, then briefly closed in July and reopened in August with prices, while continuing to provide 25 free meals daily. Alverson said the model strained staff and caused waits of up to two hours.