Post Modern Times and its brightness immediately stand out.
A lime-colored exterior complements soft green walls inside, completed by orange floors and a mural of children instead of wallpaper. Patrons from Minneapolis and beyond chat over coffee cups and plates of warm food. It is a slice of peace nestled on the corner of Chicago Ave and E 32nd Street.
In the wake of multiple ICE-related shootings, including the deaths of two Minneapolis residents, Post Modern Times has operated as a free and donation-based restaurant, putting its community first, according to owner Dylan Alverson.
Alverson, who has overseen Modern Times since its founding nearly 15 years ago, lives just a few blocks from the restaurant and spends at least six days a week there. He monitored the impact of Operation Metro Surge through staff and customer reactions.
When Latine employees grew more cautious, the restaurant started to reevaluate its operations.
“We started having conversations with [employees],” Alverson said. “Especially in how we could keep them feeling safe and then as a cafe, what steps we’re going to be taking as this became more of a reality.”
The first step was incorporating a pay-what-you-can option, or as the Modern Times team calls it, the people’s price.
They also began to work closely with Amigos One Stop, Alverson said, a corner store across the street offering products from Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Together, the two stores worked with the nonprofit Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization to get Amigos One Stop funding to cover the cost of groceries and deliveries for those in need.
“Our goal is to keep immigrant-owned restaurants alive so that our city can continue reflecting the diversity and acceptance and integration of all these different cultures,” Alverson said.
Modern Times also began to deliver meals.
On Jan. 7, just four blocks from the restaurant, ICE agents shot and killed 37-year-old Renée Good. The restaurant felt the impact.
“All the witnesses at that point were people that were either customers, friends or ex-coworkers,” Alverson said. “It was a very, very close and hard hit.”
Alverson went over to the site immediately, which he described as a war. The restaurant closed to give everyone the opportunity to attend a vigil.
When agents killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, again just blocks away from Post Modern Times, Alverson started thinking about changing the restaurant’s business model. The restaurant closed, and he was on the scene within the hour.
He sent a message to staff outlining the plan the same day, and they held a meeting to answer questions on Sunday. By Monday, they had figured out how to bring Alverson’s plan to life.
This plan meant transitioning to an entirely donations-based approach. Every meal is free for everyone except ICE agents, with the restaurant raising funds through donations alone. They also changed the name to Post Modern Times.
“We had to do something to keep our staff working and feeling inspired and feeling like they were doing something good,” Alverson said.
This change has captured the attention of people throughout the city, state and country.
Michael Hansen, a server and social media runner at Post Modern Times, said people have been doing pop-ups across the globe, including in Paris and Australia, to raise funds for the restaurant.
“This is actually a pretty crazy response I didn’t really expect–or any of us really expected–to see,” Hansen said. “We’re kind of in the eye of the storm.”
Switching to the donations model came with some risk: employees had to work on a volunteer basis. While there were questions about the details, Alverson said no one had any objections.
“I thought it was great,” Hansen said. “There’s so many systems above me that make it so hard to exist, and fundamentally I agree with free food as much as possible.”
For Hansen, the personal interactions he has had since the cafe made the switch have been heartwarming and inspiring.
In early February, an older couple stopped by the restaurant on a day when the wait was over an hour and a half. They handed Hansen a donation and said they had driven four hours to contribute.
“It was an older couple, and the dude gave me a hug and started crying,” Hansen recalled. “Stuff like that makes me feel content to be a person.”
Alverson has had similar experiences with people making small but meaningful donations.
“To me, that’s a much bigger impact than a singular rich person being like, ‘I’m gonna give you this large amount of money,’” Alverson said. “It’s something that people can afford to do — it’s amplifying the power of people united.”
Linda Calcagno traveled from a northern suburb to get breakfast at the cafe before delivering food with Iglesia Dios Habla Hoy, a church that primarily serves Hispanic community members. Her sister traveled all the way from California to help.
“It brings people together,” Calcagno said. “It makes people feel involved, and especially now, it’s a nice place to be together.”
Post Modern Times has no plans to go back to what they were before, Alverson said. They are making enough through donations to cover their operations and more, and they are turning the place into a non-profit to make it a model for others.
“Stepping out of the capitalist system gave us more support than existing in it for 15 years,” Alverson said. “The absurdity of it is that it worked.”
Markers of the Post Modern Times’ success hang around the cafe. In Alverson’s office, he tacked a statement to his wall of the cafe’s negative bank account before a viral video on social media brought in a slew of donations.
They hang all of their fanmail — most being hand-written cards and letters — on a bulletin board in one entryway downstairs. The board filled up in less than a week.
But above all else, Post Modern Times is giving people hope and a free meal.
“It’s possible to be good on a larger scale,” Alverson said. “I hope it inspires people to make changes that are for good.”
