Today chef Yia Vang announced that his first restaurant concept, Union Hmong Kitchen, will shift entirely away from in-person dining with the immediate closure of its West Lake Street restaurant in Minneapolis. Instead, the eatery will focus on catering events, in-home feasts, boxed lunches and the operation of its sports stadium stands.
Yia Vang closes Union Hmong Kitchen on Lake Street
The nomadic restaurant switches to in-home feasts and catering.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 18, 2024 at 10:30PM
The most constant element of UHK is it’s always changing, said a representative for Vang and his Hilltribe restaurant group. “Union Hmong Kitchen has always been on the move, since its early days,” the spokesperson said.
Vang founded Union Hmong Kitchen after hosting backyard cookouts with a mix of Hmong and Hmong-American dishes. Its first location was a semi-permanent trailer outside a brewery in northeast Minneapolis. Since then, Union Hmong Kitchen has had several locations around the Twin Cities including in the stands at several major sports venues.
A stand opened in the Graze Food Hall in October of 2021. That spot closed in November of this year. The second location, on West Lake Street, first served as a commissary kitchen for UHK’s popular Minnesota State Fair stand before opening a counter inside with a few tables for dining in July of 2023.
The current move means that we can no longer go to Union Hmong Kitchen, but those Kramarczuk’s-made Hmong sausages and sticky rice with Mama Vang’s hot sauce can come to us. More information about the catering options are available on Union Hmong Kitchen’s website.
Vang was unavailable for immediate comment for this story, because he was busy cooking inside the kitchen at Vinai, his 2024 Minnesota Star Tribune Restaurant of the Year. So, before anyone says something about restaurant loss, this isn’t a closure as much as a change in pace.
Switching his first restaurant to in-home feasts is a full circle moment since his current restaurant Vinai began as an in-home catering operation. Vinai was a perennially anticipated restaurant for the last four years before finally finding a home in northeast Minneapolis and opening this summer. The restaurant received almost immediate praise and has been recognized by national publications like the New York Times, GQ, and Eater.
The U.S. Department of Labor found the Argentine pizza and empanada restaurant committed several violations across its four locations, including depriving workers of overtime pay and tips, illegally firing an employee and allowing a 15-year-old to work beyond permitted hours.
