US restaurant that offered free meals in protest against ICE to shut down permanently
Modern Times Café in Minneapolis, which gained attention for its donation-based pricing model and protest against ICE, will close permanently by the end of 2026. The owner cited the inability to sustain the business model while maintaining its core social principles.
Why it matters
The closure highlights the economic challenges faced by small businesses attempting to integrate radical social activism into their operational models.
A Minneapolis restaurant that experimented with eliminating prices and offering donation-based meals in protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced it will shut down permanently by the end of 2026, Fox News reported.Modern Times Café, which rebranded as Post Modern Times earlier this year, had adopted a free and donation-based model in January, saying it would welcome everyone except ICE agents. Owner Dylan Alverson said he had spent the past six years trying to keep the business running but had exhausted all options without compromising its core principles.“For the last six years, I’ve been trying to prove that Modern Times can continue to exist,” Alverson wrote in a social media post on Saturday.
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