Full Breakdown
Modern Times Café Announces Closure Amid ICE-Related Protest
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event
Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant that operated without set prices for six months, announced it will close permanently by the end of the year. Owner Dylan Alverson said the decision follows a shift to a “free and donation-based” model that excluded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as a protest against recent ICE raids linked to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The establishment had briefly reinstated prices after a July shutdown, reopened in August, and continued serving up to 25 free meals per day while operating at a “zero profit margin.”
Background & Context
Alverson launched the price-free concept six years ago, aiming to prove a sustainable, donation-driven restaurant could exist. The model was intended as a template for other eateries, with Alverson noting in October that the venture could inspire a broader fundraising mechanism for hospitality. However, staff faced long wait times—up to two hours—for meals, half of which were provided free of charge. The shift to a donation-only format was also a direct response to ICE enforcement actions that Alverson described as “crippling” local businesses.
Official Statements & Responses
Alverson’s public comments framed the closure as a necessary step to preserve the restaurant’s core principles. He also linked the restaurant’s fate to broader concerns about the viability of independent eateries, asking how many are “close to collapse.”
Verbatim Quotes
- “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,” — Dylan Alverson
- “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,” — Dylan Alverson
- “If I can create a fundraising mechanism that can raise money to provide hospitality, we can take that program and add restaurants to it,” — Dylan Alverson
- “I think a bigger question right now is how many independent restaurants are close to collapse?” — Dylan Alverson