From Modern Times to Post Modern Times: A South Minneapolis Café Turns to Mutual Aid as Protest

MINNEAPOLIS, MN

In a city long shaped by food as a refuge and gathering place, a small café on Chicago Avenue has made an uncommon choice. In January 2026, Modern Times Cafe, a 15-year fixture of South Minneapolis, suspended its conventional business model and reopened under a temporary new name: Post Modern Times. Meals are now offered free or by donation. Sales are no longer rung up. Tips are pooled. And one condition is posted clearly: federal immigration agents are not served.

The move, according to the restaurant and confirmed by local reporting, is a deliberate act of protest against ongoing federal immigration operations in the Twin Cities. Until those operations end, the café says, it will operate outside a profit structure altogether.

Located at 3200 Chicago Avenue South, the restaurant sits within a corridor that has become synonymous with civic memory and unresolved grief. It is just blocks from George Floyd Square, where George Floyd was murdered in 2020, and near the sites of two fatal encounters involving federal agents earlier this year. That geography is not incidental to the café’s decision. It is the point.

A deliberate break from commerce

Owner Dylan Alverson announced the change in mid-January, describing it as a conscious refusal to continue “business as usual” while immigration enforcement actions unfold nearby. By abandoning traditional sales, the café avoids collecting and remitting sales tax, a symbolic and material withdrawal from what it views as complicity.

Inside, the changes are practical as well as philosophical. The café remains open daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., operating with a reduced menu to manage costs and supply. Food and drinks are offered to anyone who walks in, regardless of ability to pay. Staff members have agreed to work on a volunteer basis, receiving income solely through tips and shared donations, according to both the restaurant and community posts that helped spread the word.

The policy of refusing service to agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been confirmed by the café and by regional media. It is a line drawn not quietly, but publicly.

A neighborhood response to national forces

The transformation of Modern Times into Post Modern Times has circulated widely through social media and mutual-aid networks, including the Twin Cities Free Food Events & Resources group. Supporters have framed the café as both a practical resource and a moral statement, urging residents to stop in, donate if they can, and tip generously.

That response reflects the moment in which the café’s decision lands. January 2026 has been marked by heightened tension in Minneapolis following two fatal shootings involving federal agents.

On January 7, Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother and legal observer, was shot and killed by an ICE officer during an encounter that remains under investigation. Her family-commissioned autopsy disputes initial federal statements about the circumstances of her death.

On January 24, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents. Video footage shows Pretti filming agents before being tackled and shot. Federal authorities have said the incident is under review.

In social media posts, some community members have described these deaths in moral and emotional terms that go beyond established legal findings. Investigations into both shootings were still active at the time of publication, and no final determinations had been released by oversight bodies.

Food as protest, not performance

What distinguishes Post Modern Times from symbolic protest is its operational follow-through. The café has not closed its doors in defiance. It has kept them open wider, offering food without transaction and relying on collective support to survive.

The approach echoes older mutual-aid traditions in Minneapolis, where kitchens, churches, and small businesses have repeatedly stepped into gaps left by institutions. It is also fragile by design, dependent on sustained community participation rather than revenue guarantees.

For now, the restaurant’s staff says the arrangement is working. Donations have covered basic costs. Tips have been steady enough to support workers. And the dining room remains full.

How long the experiment can last is an open question. Alverson has framed the model as temporary, tied explicitly to the presence of federal immigration enforcement in the city. But its impact, even if brief, has already extended beyond its modest footprint on Chicago Avenue.

In a season defined by loss and unresolved accountability, a neighborhood café has chosen to answer national power with something smaller and older: a plate of food, freely given, and a refusal to pretend that nothing has changed.

MinneapoliMedia