Post Modern Times, a scrappy south Minneapolis cafe that wiped prices off its menu this winter, says its donation-only gamble is actually paying off. Owner Dylan Alverson says the place is now serving a mix of neighbors grabbing a free hot meal and customers who are happily footing the bill for everyone else, keeping the line long and the griddle humming.
In an interview with The New York Times, Alverson said that roughly 40 to 50 percent of diners walk out without paying a cent, yet he insists that "profits have never been better." At the same time, the Times reported that the cafe brought in about $1.3 million in sales in 2025 while posting a net loss of roughly $18,500.
Locally, the move has triggered a surge of goodwill and money: according to the Star Tribune, donations in February outpaced the restaurant's sales from the entire previous year, and Alverson is now working with an accountant to turn the operation into a nonprofit. The paper also notes that staff agreed to work as volunteers, with their income now coming from pooled tips and community donations.
How the donation model works
Instead of handing over a check, customers are met at the counter with a simple question: "Would you like to make a donation?" From there, the cafe leans on a patchwork of overpaying regulars, mailed-in checks and a small online store to keep the doors open. The restaurant's own site features a donate button and merch like $25 T-shirts, and managers say those sales, along with occasional larger gifts, have become key pieces of the revenue puzzle; see the cafe's website for details.
Neighbors and safety concerns
The shift has not landed smoothly with everyone on the block. Some neighbors have praised the cafe as a rare "safe haven" where anyone can sit down and eat, while others have raised alarms about disorder and open drug use just outside the front door. Coverage from Bring Me The News highlights both the flood of donations and the unease voiced by some residents watching the crowds grow.
Taxes and the path to nonprofit
Alverson has framed the transformation as a political statement as much as a business experiment. He announced the change on Instagram on January 26 and wrote that he "refuse to generate taxes under the guise of a functioning for-profit capitalist business." As the Star Tribune reports, he is in the middle of assembling a board and handling the paperwork needed to convert Post Modern Times into a nonprofit, a process that he and his accountant expect will take months.
For now, the cafe's donation experiment is being watched around the country as a test of whether a small restaurant can survive outside traditional pricing. Alverson and his crew say the real focus is simpler: feed the neighborhood and keep the lights on. Whether this model becomes something other restaurants can copy or stays a very Minneapolis solution will come down to the same shaky ingredients that started it all: ongoing donations, volunteer labor, and the burst of goodwill that flooded the diner this spring.
