By the time local Blaine officials stepped outside the front doors of Asia Village to cut the ribbon and officially inaugurate the space, sisters Rose and Duo Yang had been waiting in line outside the mall for almost three hours.
“We feel so dumb,” Rose said, laughing. The two had been the first to arrive, at 8 a.m. sharp. When they made it to Asia Village, the mall was deserted, save for employees setting up for the grand opening.
For the sisters, the wait Saturday morning was worth it.
Any residents looking for a one-stop locale to shop and dine for all things Asian on the north side of the Twin Cities metro area, “don’t have to travel [anymore],” Rose said.
Asia Village, the second in a series of one-stop-shop Asian malls, is located in a former department store in the Northtown Mall complex. The two-story space has been transformed into a mecca for restaurants, retailers and entertainment venues, both national and local. It aims to outdo the first of its kind, the Asia Mall in Eden Prairie, with an expansive food court and family-friendly activities.
Word had gotten around quickly about the mall: outside, a line of more than 100 people stretched down the block and around the corner of the building.
For many in line, the big pull of Asia Village was the quick counter-service restaurants. The Yangs, who are Hmong and live in Brooklyn Park and St. Paul, respectively, appreciated how easy it is to try cuisines they don’t typically find in close proximity to their house.
Asia Village boasts a mix of businesses, with cuisine representing more than five countries. Some local restaurants, like Sot House, Oday Creamery and Mochi Dough, are returning favorites from the Asia Mall.
Others, like Sidewalk Steakhouse, which serves sizzling Korean street food and Poke Bowl, which offers traditional Hawaiian fare, are brand new restaurants exclusively available at Asia Village. The mall even produces fresh tapioca pearls.
Owner Michael Bui greeted visitors outside the mall at the ribbon cutting ceremony, describing it as a place to celebrate the Asian culture he’d originally resented as a child.
“I was embarrassed to be Asian growing up,” Bui said. “I wanted to assimilate as soon as possible. I didn’t appreciate my own culture, my heritage, where I came from.”
Over time, Bui learned to embrace it, falling in love with the cuisine. He urged all children in the crowd to be proud and never feel ashamed of their background.
Bui also owns Pho Mai, a Vietnamese restaurant that serves noodles, banh mi, and Vietnamese coffee, which also has a branch in Eden Prairie’s Asia Mall. Bui partnered with the owners and developers of Asia Mall to build the second hub, hoping to expand on the success of the first and allow new Asian-owned businesses to flourish.
After a two-year process, the space has finally been realized.
“It’s hard to open restaurants now, with the rising costs. We wanted to create an environment where people come back,” Bui said.
Blaine has grown increasingly diverse and developed a strong Asian community, so much so that Bui felt it to be a less risky location than Eden Prairie. If he built the mall, the people would come.
Blaine Mayor Tim Sanders, brandishing a pair of oversized scissors and accompanied by several members of City Council, thanked visitors for coming and shared his hope that the mall would bring further business and diversity to the area.
“We believe that you truly will enrich the city of Blaine,” Sanders said. “You’re doing an amazing thing in reinvesting in the Northtown mall area. We’re grateful you decided to plant a flag right here.”
Mall culture has been on the decline in Minnesota. In recent years, Northtown Mall has lost two of its anchor stores, Hobby Lobby and Best Buy. Other retailers have moved into more metropolitan areas, out of the state or exclusively online. Then the cycle perpetuates — as more people move towards online shopping, more national retailers move out of malls, reducing foot traffic further.
Northtown Mall was the third-largest and one of the busiest malls in the Twin Cities metro area when it opened in 1972. Now, the majority of the mall’s parking lots are barren.
At Asia Village, which operates in a space formerly occupied by Becker Furniture, that trend seems to be reversing. Sanders snipped the ribbon outside the mall entrance, and crowds that welled as he spoke poured in.
Asian culture has found a broad audience in Minnesota. The past few years have seen an uptick in interest in Asian food and culture, from the proliferation of boba and matcha to the expansion of ramen restaurants. The Asian population of the state is growing alongside it, having tripled since 1990. Nine percent of Blaine residents are Asian, as opposed to 5% in Minnesota overall.
“Minnesota in the ’80s was a very different place than what it is now,” Bui said.
The buzz for the mall’s offerings was immediately evident. A constant stream of people swept in and out of the front doors, crowding the escalator to go up to the second floor where kids entered a 11,000-square-foot indoor playground while parents dropped by a Korean beauty store or were served hotpot by robots in the mall’s full-service restaurant. Other visitors queued for a variety of opening-day goodies, including free ice cream, mugs, totes and shirts.
Tina Zhao, one of the general managers at 85℃ Bakery Cafe, a Taiwanese bakery that serves both traditional and fusion baked goods, figured that they’ve probably “congregated every Californian in Minnesota.”
Multiple customers had already filled trays with sugar cream cheese or taro bread, saying they’d last eaten the food on one of the Coasts or in Asia.
“I think it gives the North Metro something familiar, but closer to home,” Zhao said.
Edwin Guzmni, who was helping his wife and store manager Lin Li serve customers at Hokkaido Ramen, echoed the sentiment. “We all came with the same idea — to make food with products as close as we could to home,” he said.
Asia Village unofficially opened at the end of May. But the fact that it had the sole packed parking lot in the mall complex is evidence of its popularity thus far.
There is more to come at Asia Village. Approximately 80% of the stores in the complex were in full operation at the grand opening. An ice cream shop with Asian-inspired flavors like lychee and matcha and an arcade on the second floor are expected to open within the next few months.
The excitement over Asia Village’s opening was anticipated by Bui and other Asia Village owners, so he decided to have the space inaugurated in a special way. Following the ribbon cutting, a troupe of young lion dancers bobbed and bounced to the sound of cymbals and drums in the parking lot. Onlookers filmed as the performers tossed candy into the crowd, leading customers into the mall.
At the end of the dance, Dou presented the dancers with red paper envelopes filled with money, traditionally given to friends and family during Lunar New Year. She slid the envelopes into the lions’ open mouths and pressed another into Bui’s hands.
For luck and prosperity, she said. She had been inside Asia Village for less than five minutes, but she already knew that she would be back soon.
