Liberal Cafe Offered Free Meals to ICE Agitators for Months - It Turns Out That Wasn't the Best Business Model
A café in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that served free meals to agitators opposed to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is closing its doors.
The restaurant, formerly known as “Modern Times,” rebranded as “Post Modern Times” after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during confrontations with ICE agents.
Minneapolis restaurant that offered free meals to protest ICE announces closure
A Minneapolis restaurant that abandoned traditional pricing to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations is closing permanently.
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) October 24, 2026
The change, however, reached well beyond just the name on the sign.
In a Jan. 26 social media announcement, Modern Times Café owner Dylan Alverson announced a drastic change in his business model.
“Effective tomorrow we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city. We refuse to generate taxes under the guise of a functioning for-profit capitalist business aligned with government strategy,” he wrote.
“Amidst many strategic pivots and determined leadership, Modern Times has been barely soluble since 2020. Therefore, for the remainder of the government occupation, we will function as a free and donation based restaurant, Post Modern Times. Everyone is welcome EXCEPT ICE.”
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It’s just too perfect that this structural shift was fueled, at least in part, by hatred of capitalism.
You see, socialism rests on the idea that humans are fundamentally good and cooperative. But Alverson quickly learned that when you remove the profit incentive, everything starts to fall apart.
In 2025, for example, the café’s $1.3 million in sales still turned into an $18,500 deficit, according to The New York Times.
While his lack of financial literacy may not surprise you, the results of his socialist experiment are even less shocking: employees left, and wait times hit two hours.
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According to Alpha News, Alverson brought back food prices, eliminated tips, and promised 25 free meals a day to fix the problems.
As it turns out, it was too little, too late. Bad financial decisions have bad financial consequences.
Hence the Oct. 17 announcement: “I’ve exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make Modern Times what it is. Because of this, we have made the choice to close at the end of the year.”
They’re done, yet Alverson claims that he’s “exhausted every option.”
Every option? Really?
Here’s one option he apparently never considered: keep politics out of the kitchen.
When you turn your restaurant into a soup kitchen for anti-ICE activism, you aren’t just making a statement. You’re telling tens of millions of Americans who support immigration enforcement that they’re not welcome.
At the same time, you’re trading paying regulars for a crowd that, by design, mostly doesn’t pay.
Alverson says he exhausted every option, but he skipped the simplest one. He could have opened the doors, set fair prices, and let anyone who wanted a good meal or drink buy one, no political litmus test required.
That’s not selling out. That’s running a restaurant.
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