The Literal and Metaphoric Melting Pot of Northeast Minneapolis

By Amy Rea
Presented by The Heavy Table

Conventional wisdom has it that Minnesota was largely settled by Scandinavian and German immigrants. There are generations of people with surnames that sound straight out of northern Europe all over the state as many of those immigrants headed to the countryside for farming and logging opportunities. They are far from the only regions of the world where people decided to leave, whether because of religion, war, or lack of opportunity, and come to America. Northeast Minneapolis has come to represent one of the most diverse communities in the state and its food scene reflects that.

Early Immigrants

While some Scandinavian (especially Swedish) and German immigrants made their home in Northeast Minneapolis, the area originally known as St. Anthony (before Minneapolis annexed it) initially largely became the home of immigrants from Eastern Europe, including Russia, Poland, and Ukraine. 

These immigrants often arrived with little to no knowledge of English and faced the daunting task of earning a living. The growing milling industry along the Mississippi River provided entry-level jobs by the river with many of the immigrant workers living in the then-named Bohemia Flats (today the West Bank of the U of MN along the river) before starting to set up housekeeping in Northeast. Wages weren't much–laborers earned between $1-1.50 a day which is only about $23 in 2023 dollars, but if they were coming from war-torn or jobless areas, it was enough to build a new life. 

Between 1860-1890, the city tripled its population every decade. Eastern European immigrants continued to stream in, attracted by the promise of plenty of work that didn't require experience or specialization. They overlapped with the arrival of Chinese immigrants between 1876-1910, many of whom spent time on the West Coast before heading to Minnesota. Italians had a smaller surge of immigration between 1905-1920, which led to Italian-owned grocery stores and saloons. Greek immigrants began arriving by 1910, followed by Syrians and Lebanese, many of whom congregated in Northeast.

Vestiges of those early generations can be found in the names of former food and drink businesses, companies founded directly by immigrants or likely by their descendants, including Sikora's Polish Market, Nye's Polonaise Room (now known as Nye's Bar), and Schmidler Meats. Among those still around are Surdyk's, which was founded by Polish immigrant Joseph Surdyk shortly after the end of Prohibition when he thought selling liquor with groceries would be a good business model, and Kramarczuk's Sausage Co., opened in the late 1940s by Ukrainian immigrants Wasyl and Anna Kramarczuk.   

It can be difficult to determine whether restaurants were opened by immigrants due to the lack of reliable records from a century ago. A restaurant with a Russian or Polish name might have been started by an immigrant, but records are such that there might be an obituary that shows the person's death but doesn't mention where they were born. Searches of public records to try and find out those details were frequently dead ends. Librarians who assisted with research for this story speculated that that could reflect how often immigrants changed their names upon arrival (or had their names changed for them whether they liked it or not). 

The Rise of Breweries

Besides the mills, breweries kept many people employed. In 1850, John Orth, an immigrant from France (although he later claimed he was from Germany) opened Orth's Brewing in Northeast. It was Hennepin County's first brewery and only the second one in the state (the first being Schell's Brewery in New Ulm). By 1868, he had another immigrant competing with him–Gottlieb Gluek founded Gluek Brewing in Northeast. By 1958, it was the state's longest-continuously running business. 

Orth went on to merge with three other breweries (Heinrich, Germania, and Norenburg) to become Minnesota Brewing Company in 1890. The merged companies eventually changed the name to Grain Belt Breweries in 1967 and set up shop on Marshall St. NE. The breweries provided good jobs and stable employment, much needed as the sawmills and lumber factories began to decline. 

A Vibrant International Community
Northeast had a remarkably broad immigrant population by the early 20th century. People from Scandinavian countries, France, Ireland, Germany, Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia, Lebanon, and Polish made up a large part of the community. A 1913 study of the Northeast population found that 80% of residents were either foreign-born or had immigrant parents. 

Some of these immigrants began looking at running their own businesses. One can only imagine how disparate the diets were among the various cultural groups and what each thought of the others' traditions. Aside from larger-scale breweries and small corner groceries, some of the immigrants began opening eateries, sometimes focused on the foods of their homeland, sometimes taking what they considered a more American approach with foods they hoped would appeal to all. 

Later Arrivals
While Chinese immigrants arrived in the 19th century, immigrants from other parts of Asia didn't arrive in Minnesota until the second part of the 20th century. Vietnamese immigrants began arriving in the mid-1970s, as did Hmong, both escaping war and persecution. In 1980, Que Viet Vietnamese opened in Northeast, only the second Vietnamese restaurant in the state at the time and now the longest running. 

They didn't remain a rarity for long. Central Avenue became a haven for immigrants wanting to cook the foods from home and sell them to others. Various Asian eateries appeared and flourished, some working to appease Minnesotan appetites, but others working to re-create favorites they'd learned from family in other countries.

Latin Americans
It wasn't until the late 20th century that the Mexican population in the state, including Northeast, began to skyrocket. A study late in the century found that Mexicans made up 15% of workers in meat- and poultry-processing plants, bars, and restaurants. The latter provided valuable on-the-job training that later manifested in people like Gustavo Romera, the owner of Nixta Tortilleria & Mexican Takeout. Romero brought heirloom ingredients and time-honored techniques to Northeast in 2020. He said that he expected others to do the same; people who worked their way up from washing dishes to cooking in other people's cafes would eventually want to showcase their own abilities and food preferences, often in ways not yet explored in the Twin Cities. 

Romero wasn't the only one. Former Ecuadorian Marcos Pinguil is the owner and chef of Chimborazo, where he's spent more than a decade educating local diners about the wonders of Ecuadorian dishes.

It's not just meals, but baked goods sold from Mexican panaderias, such as Central Avenue's Durango Bakery or Panaderia Ecuatoriana "Charita." 

Today, much of the world is represented in just a few miles across Northeast. Some aspects of the immigrant history are coming full circle. Kramarczuk's Ukrainian roots were planted here decades ago, but today more Ukraine refugees are arriving. But no matter where in the world they come from, they're more than welcome to join in the Northeast melting pot.