Hard Times Cafe

Hard Times Cafe is a worker-owned coffee shop and restaurant in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, distinguished by its cash-only policy and its hours that keep it open nearly around the clock. The building itself has a history that stretches back to the early twentieth century, when it served as a motorcycle dealership. By the time the current collective took over in nineteen ninety-two, the space had been occupied by a series of struggling restaurants, including one called the Urban Peasant.