Global Pioneers: Digital Exclusive Interviews

General Food Facebook X Photo by Caroline Yang F or generations, Minnesota restaurant families have introduced diners to flavors from around the world and made those flavors part of the way we eat. Behind their menus are stories of immigration, hard work, and traditions handed from one generation to the next. Across Minnesota, our culinary landscape is not merely built on brick, mortar, and menus. Rather, it is sustained by the profound grit, passion, and lineage of restaurant families who feed our communities and keep their heritage alive, one shared dish at a time. Together, five of those restaurants—Rainbow Chinese Restaurant, Black Forest Inn, Kramarczuk’s, Mediterranean Cruise Café, and Boca Chica Restaurante y Cantina—have shaped more than 281 years of our state’s restaurant history. We brought members of these families together to talk about the dishes, memories, and relationships that have sustained their businesses—and what Minnesota has meant to them. This is an exclusive digital extension for an article that appears in the November/December 2026 issue of Minnesota Monthly. Please note: interviews have been edited for clarity and flow. Rainbow Chinese: A Family Tradition Photo by Caroline Yang JERROD SUMNER (JS): You are the founder of the restaurant, but is there any other generation of your family involved in the business? TAMMY WONG (TW): It was mostly me, but nobody ever asks if I am the founder. I always like to honor my parents. It was my father who wanted to have a restaurant. I am the oldest of nine children, number two in the family, and my heritage is 100% Chinese. Being a woman and the oldest sister coming in without knowing anything about running a restaurant, it felt less like a business plan and more like a daily chore that had to be done. I had to figure out how to make a living and support my family. When I was young, it wasn’t necessarily a desire at first, but rather a sense of responsibility and pressure. I remember going out to find a quiet tree to sit under while trying to figure out how to incorporate the business. I learned as I went, setting up the legal structure, and I have been the legal owner of the restaurant since 1987. It is going to be forty years old soon, and I am still learning how to run this business. My dad supported me emotionally, but it was mostly up to me. I learned how to print menus, figure out what people love to eat, and share our heritage and culture. We took over the space from someone who came from New York with a big idea and a noodle machine to supply fresh noodles right here in Minneapolis; they were truly ahead of their time. They served noodle soup, which people loved, especially since there weren’t many noodle shops in Minnesota back then. People coming to the grocery strip would stop in for noodle soup. They operated for about a year, and then a couple of my siblings and I took over. I became the legal owner from day one because I was the one who made everything happen. JS: What do you want diners to think of when they think of Rainbow Chinese and Tammy Wong? What dish are you known for, and how do you want people to experience it? TW: Things have certainly changed over the years. If you had asked me fifteen or twenty years ago, people came specifically for the noodle soup. Nowadays, people often know me for making the best egg rolls and incredible black bean sauce. People talk about that black bean sauce all the time. Along with the sauce, our noodle dishes are among our absolute best sellers. One customer favorite is the Singapore Chow Mai Fan, a gluten-free rice noodle tossed with curry spices, pork, and shrimp. Another classic is chicken with black bean sauce over pan-fried noodles, which we traditionally call two-sided brown Cantonese-style noodles. When my family moved here from California, I worked at a little restaurant in St. Louis Park and kept seeing orders for Cantonese chow mein come in. People loved those crisp noodles on the side paired with steamed vegetables and savory sauce on top. JS: Was it challenging for diners to get used to the dishes you originally offered when they fell outside what people were familiar with? Was it hard to teach them about foods like black bean sauce? TW: That is a great question. At the beginning, we were in a unique neighborhood undergoing revitalization, and ninety to ninety-five percent of our customers were Asian. They loved our food, like the beef chow fun. Then, a food writer named Jeremy Iggers came in and tried new things over a couple of weeks. I remember he ordered squid with salted vegetables, which is the exact traditional translation from my ancestry for squid with pickled mustard greens. It is delicious! After he wrote a wonderful three-and-a-half-star review, our sales jumped from a couple hundred dollars a day to having lines stretching out into the street, staying open until one in the morning with so many people coming to eat. To answer your question, we did not have trouble with our core community, but when other customers started coming in, we gently guided them on how to try traditional, authentic noodles. JS: Do you consider yourself a cook or a chef? TW: When my staff calls me a chef, I feel a little shy about it when I step outside the restaurant, so I would rather people not call me a chef. But when I walk back inside, I tell myself, you know what, I can be a chef. JS: You are a chef. A total badass chef, in fact. Tell me, what is inspiring you today? What ingredients, trends, or ideas are exciting you right now in the restaurant? TW: For years, I volunteered teaching people how to use local vegetables at the Minneapolis Farmers Market, and I became a vendor more than ten years ago. It is another wonderful way to coach and connect. Young people and farmers come by for a drink or an egg roll, and we trade items. Sometimes I end up with so much produce that I need to pickle and preserve it. Recently, because the farmers market shifted from being open seven days a week to closing on Mondays and Tuesdays, some growers do not have large coolers like we do, so surplus produce risks going to waste at the farm. Especially during the slow state fair weeks, they ask if we can take the extra vegetables so they do not get thrown away. I took all of those fresh vegetables and beautiful flower bouquets and set up a display right at the restaurant. Customers and employees can buy them at fair prices, like a bag of green beans for three dollars or a bouquet for ten dollars, and I bring every cent right back to the growers. JS: Minnesota Monthly is dedicated to the spirit of Minnesota. What does the spirit of Minnesota mean to you? TW: I was not born in America; I was born in Vietnam, and my family spent time as refugees in Hong Kong before moving to the United States. We lived in New York, then California, and finally settled here in Minnesota. I have lived here for most of my life. This city is my home, and that is what the spirit of Minnesota means to me. It is a beautiful, beautiful city that I am proud to call home. Boca Chica Restaurante y Cantina: A West-Side Tradition Photo by Caroline Yang JERROD SUMNER (JS): What is your first memory of the restaurant, the food, and growing up around it? JOSÉ FRIAS (JF): My first memories are a bit unique. My parents separated when I was very young, so my memories of coming to the restaurant often started with my mother dropping us off. Because it was our weekend time with our dad, we would spend the entire day here while he worked. As a young kid in a restaurant, you find anything you can to play with. I remember finding huge bags of rubber bands because back then everything involved office paperwork instead of computers. I would grab a stack and start shooting them at targets, and I am sure I gave a few unsuspecting customers a little shout-out from under a table as they walked through the door. My dad would also let us bring our little red tricycl