Modern Times Cafe, a Minneapolis restaurant that drew attention for dropping menu prices and serving free meals, will shut down by the end of 2026.
Owner Dylan Alverson announced the closure in a social media post on Saturday, saying he had run out of ways to keep the business alive.
He said the next two months will be used to celebrate the restaurant's history and to look at ways of supporting similar business models.
The cafe has operated for 16 years, and its experiment with a donation-based system put pressure on both its finances and its daily operations.
Owner says every option was exhausted
Alverson wrote that he had spent six years trying to prove Modern Times could continue to exist.
He said he had exhausted every option without compromising the core fundamentals that make the restaurant what it is.
According to Alverson, the remaining months offer a chance to consider alternatives for businesses pursuing similar approaches.
He argued that the only way for places like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons it can no longer exist.
In January, Alverson announced on Instagram that the business, rebranded as Post Modern Times, would become a free and donation-based restaurant.
The initiative was intended as a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota, amid public attention surrounding the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Alverson said he opposed the financial relationship between his business, government spending and federal enforcement activities.
The decision followed the fatal shooting of Pretti by Border Patrol agents, according to the source report.
The restaurant ran without set prices for about six months before temporarily closing in July.
When it reopened in August, it reinstated prices but continued offering 25 free meals each day.
By October, Alverson told The New York Times that the restaurant was operating without a profit margin.
He hoped the approach could eventually provide a funding model that other restaurants could adopt.
The arrangement also created operational challenges, with Alverson acknowledging that the workload was taxing for employees.
Customers sometimes waited as long as two hours for meals, approximately half of which were typically provided free.
Some neighbors also raised concerns that people experiencing homelessness or drug addiction might take advantage of the free meal program.
In comments to Fox News Digital, Alverson maintained his position and pointed to broader financial pressures facing independent restaurants.
He asked how many independent restaurants are close to collapse.
