Food For The Common Good

 Can a restaurant make an impact on it's surroundings and the people who visit it? Absolutely especially when the owner and manager want to create a safe space for all those who visit. The restaurant is Post Modern Times.. The community is Minneapolis  - a city that's had it's fair share of government induced problems,

Regular contributor Brett Anderson wrote about the fascinating eatery in yesterdays' New YOrk Times Wednesday Food section. The Post Modern Times diner's owner Dylan Alverson decided to stop charging for food during the January siege of his city. His decision came amid his standing in the middle of tear gas and flash bang grenades. Te original intent came from a disgusted American citizen and to stop paying taxes to a government he said was "actively inflicting daily harm to its citizens" The restaurant stood a few blocks away from where Renee Good and George Floyd were murdered. The pay as you wish eatery would also have a new name: Post Modern Times. The restaurant thrived despite that most visitors cannot pay.it is a vision in performing arts.  He is stepping out of the system, deciding that maybe making a profit isn't really a good thing after all.In the years before the pandemic Mr. Alverson was making a ten per cent profit margin but never exceeded it. He sees is days as a young punk anticipating societal collapse as an asset in confronting forbidding odds as a restauranteur.

Having a no pay restaurant is nothing new. ocker Jon Bon Jovi  owns Soul Kitchen  where  diners pay what they can and if they can;t they can help put in some way . However what makes Wisconsin born  Mr/ Alverson;s Post Modern Times novel is his determination to center his business on expanded concept of hospitality driven by more than economic survival The country is a fascist economy where independent can;t get by,. There's a catastrophic failure of the restaurant industry.His pessimistic analysis is not that crazy. Some forty-two per cent of fellow eatery owners said their businesses weren't profitable according to a report from the National Restaurant Association. A February survey of three hundred members of the Independent Coalition formed during the pandemic  shows that one in four are in serious threat of closing. Even worse for Mr. Alverson is that neighbors are complaining that the restaurant's patrons may being in a criminal element,. Yet that's not true. There are people who bring their kids even if they can;t pay.It's a place of comfort with good food and diversity according to one regular customer ,Mallory Alekan an music teacher.

Yet Post Modern Times and Mr Alverson are making a difference. They're providing healing in a government broken city. Food heals . The city and its' people need that.