Modern Times Café, a Minneapolis restaurant trying to lower its prices, announced it will permanently close by the end of the year.
“For the past six years, I have worked hard to prove that the Modern Era can continue to exist,” owner Dylan Alverson wrote on social media on Saturday. “I’ve exhausted every option without affecting the core foundation of Modern Times.”
He added that he plans to spend the next two months celebrating the 16-year-old business and discussing ways businesses like his can continue to grow.
“The only way for a place like Modern Times to exist in the future is to actively challenge the reasons why it no longer exists,” Alverson wrote.
Alverson announced on Instagram in January that his business would be renamed “Post Modern Times” and would operate as a “free and donation-based restaurant” where everyone would be welcome “but ICE” to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in his state, in part in response to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“We absolutely cannot continue like this. I’m tired of making money for soldiers on our streets and a government that won’t protect us — a government that actively causes harm to its citizens every day,” Alverson wrote. “Starting tomorrow we will no longer make money for the fascists who occupy our cities.”
The decision came after Preeti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents.
Modern Times Café went without pricing for about six months before briefly closing in July.
When the store reopened in August, it reverted to using prices but announced it would continue to offer 25 free meals a day.
By October, Alverson told The New York Times that he was operating at “zero profit margin” and hoped his restaurant could become a model for others.
“If I can set up a fundraising mechanism to raise money to provide hospitality, we can take that program and add restaurants to it,” Alverson said.
However, he admits the process is a burden on his staff and results in customers waiting up to two hours for a meal, half of which is usually free.
Neighbors also fear homeless people and drug addicts will take advantage of the offer.
In comments to Fox News Digital, Alverson stood by his remarks to The New York Times and said the bigger problem was other struggling restaurants.
“I think the bigger question right now is how many independent restaurants are going out of business?” Alverson said.