The NY Times has a story today about a restaurant in Minneapolis that has decided to stop charging people for food. The headline really says it all, "This Restaurant Stopped Charging for Food. And Profits Are Up."
Dylan Alverson stood amid tear gas and flash-bang grenades, on the frozen street where Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents in January, when he got the idea for what he later called an “absurd business move.” He decided to stop charging for food at Modern Times, the south Minneapolis cafe he’s run for 15 years.
Alverson made the announcement on Instagram. Here's a bit of what he said.
Effective tomorrow we are done making money for the fascists that occupy our city. We refuse to generate taxes under the guise of a functioning for-profit capitalist business aligned with government strategy. Amidst many strategic pivots and determined leadership, Modern Times has been barely soluble since 2020. Therefore, for the remainder of the government occupation, we will function as a free and donation based restaurant, Post Modern Times. Everyone is welcome EXCEPT ICE.
That was the end of January and, according to the NY Times, everything is going great.
More surprising, though, is what ensued in the weeks and months that followed. Post Modern Times thrived, even as the number of customers who don’t pay for food now hovers between 40 and 50 percent...
On one of the first warm days of spring last month, the breakfast rush began as soon as the doors opened at Post Modern Times, at 9 a.m. Mr. Alverson, a married, nose-ringed father of three, paused between tasks as diners took their seats.
Among them was Antonio Malone, a video artist who said he’s eaten at the restaurant every day for three weeks, drawn by the quality, free food...
Diners are not presented with bills at the end of meals, just an opportunity to donate, if they can. Mr. Everett could not. The server thanked him for coming.
I'm reading all of this waiting for some explanation of how the finances are going as promised by the headline. If nearly half of patrons don't pay, who is covering the expenses? Eventually, in the last part of the story we do get one.
His restaurant generated $1.3 million in sales last year and still lost $18,500, according to a financial statement prepared by an accountant that he shared with The Times. And that’s in spite of cost-conscious measures like paying himself just $23,000 a year as the restaurant’s manager, chef and fix-it man...
Modern Times’s distinctive merchandise has added a revenue stream since the restaurant introduced limited-run, artist-designed T-shirts during the pandemic. Attention brought on by Operation Metro Surge, and Mr. Alverson’s response to it, triggered an uptick in those sales, from $60,000 a year to $25,000 in April of this year alone, along with a flood of financial gifts from outside Minnesota.
In other words, he got a lot of attention for his ICE resistance, sold some T-shirts and is now getting donations from other states for his resistance performance art. That's how he's surviving. And because his restaurant now attracts a lot of homeless people, he also needs security outside.
His efforts have not been universally embraced. Mr. Alverson said neighbors regularly complain that Post Modern Times is attracting diners who raise the potential for crime.
Derek Armstrong is one answer to those concerns. He provides security outside the restaurant most days, drawing on his experience working as a “violence interrupter” at George Floyd Square, intervening peacefully before crimes could occur. He knows how to navigate intense moments that can be complicated by drug addiction and mental illness, as he suspected was the case the time a customer turned a butter knife on an employee.
I guess if a guy wants to turn his struggling restaurant into a soup kitchen funded by out-of-state donations, that's his prerogative. But there's more evidence in the comments that not everyone is thrilled about it. This is the top comment:
I live on the same block as Modern Times & I can tell you that there are a growing number of neighbors who are angry and growing impatient with Mr. Alverson because he has singlehandedly brought droves of drug abusers & mentally ill people to our neighborhood. The article mentions "neighbors regularly complain"... Yes, that is true, because we have very good reason to complain. Ever since the restaurant became Post Modern Times our neighborhood has seen a dramatic increase of crime stemming from his new patrons, including open drug use in our alleys, public urination/defecation issues, & stolen packages. His patrons get their free food, often in to-go boxes, then they inevitably wander into our alleys. They litter their to-go cups and boxes everywhere of course, but more concerningly they smoke & inject their drugs & then they leave behind their pieces of burned tinfoil & used needles. Every.single.day. we're having to go out & carefully pick up these pieces of tinfoil (which could contain traces of deadly fentanyl for all we know) & used drug paraphernalia. Our children should not have to encounter that dangerous nonsense as they play in the alley or walk home from school. Another issue caused by Mr. Alverson's new patrons: they relieve themselves in our alleys & on our properties. They defecate in people's yards, squat behind trash cans, & even break into garages to leave their piles of filth. Mr. Alverson is absolutely aware of all of this & he does nothing about it.
Sounds awful but I guess cleaning up after his free patrons is not the owner's problem. Anyway, I think we should keep an eye on Post Modern Times and see how long this experiment lasts. My guess is that public attention will move on and donations will dry up. In other words, sooner or later the owner will run out of other people's money. How long will that take? Maybe a few more months or maybe a year. But I don't think this is going to survive on local donations once the resistance loses focus on it.
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