Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Vinai, Vinai, Vinai, Vinai
Yia Vang has had a remarkable 2024. Since opening this summer, his long-awaited restaurant Vinai has nabbed nods from the New York Times (where it made the 2024 Restaurant List) and Eater (which named it one of the 14 best new restaurants in America). And that's in addition to all kinds of local accolades—in my personal favorite, MPR's Jacob Aloi says the restaurant offers "a big Vang for your buck."
Today, the Hmong-American chef can add a few more honors to the trophy case: Vinai is one of Esquire's best new restaurants, and the men's mag has named Vang its chef of the year. Here's a bit of what Esquire's Joshua David Stein had to say:
Vang is adamant that Vinai is not “elevated” Hmong cuisine but rather Hmong cuisine presented in a culture that is finally putting some respect on its name. Regardless of its elevation, the pleasure of the food is visceral. Poking out of a tin pot, a beef rib yields its meat upon lifting, plopping into a long-simmered, ginger-studded broth. Picked crabmeat, tossed in brown butter and crab fat, commingles with crispy fried rice. Add the duck egg. Add the fried oyster. Go ham.
Not enough Yia for ya? He was also on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last month, showing Guy Fieri how to make Hmong crispy fried chicken and Thai tea pancakes.
Winston Smith's Phone Unlocked
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension announced Tuesday that it has unlocked the phone Winston Smith was using to record video at the time he was shot by police in an Uptown Minneapolis parking garage. The bureau has confirmed the video's existence, news that comes more than a year after reports that such a video existed and more than three years after the BCA closed its investigation into Smith's 2021 death during a confrontation with a U.S. Marshals task force.
The video is not yet public, but last year sources who spoke with MPR News on the condition of anonymity said that in the 35-second clip, "Smith pointed a gun at deputies before he and law enforcement exchanged gunfire." It will be made public after review by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, according to the BCA.
Despite Lagging Enrollment, Local Colleges Build Up
"The University of St. Thomas sounded a budget alarm in April as it announced staff layoffs and other belt-tightening measures," begins this quad-bylined story from the Pioneer Press. "At the same time, St. Thomas welcomed visitors to the Schoenecker Center, a new arts and sciences building on the St. Paul campus, which sits opposite a future 5,000-seat, Division I hockey and basketball arena under construction off Cretin Avenue."
This is the dichotomy area colleges and universities are struggling with, according to the PiPress. Enrollment is sagging behind pre-pandemic numbers, and the declining birth rate suggests "continued tough times ahead." But area higher-ed institutions including St. Thomas, Macalester College in St. Paul, and Bethel University in Arden Hills are all erecting new buildings or renovating existing ones in the hopes of attracting students. (Nationally, the price of tuition is quietly trending downward, The Hill reports, which seems like the real ticket to boosting enrollment.)
“We’re entering what’s called a ‘winner takes most’ market, where the strong schools win the students," St. Thomas President Rob Vischer says. "In a brutally competitive marketplace, schools that can build on their strengths are going to thrive.”
HBD to Hudsynn, Graysynn, and Paxtynn
This has to be a troll, right? Hudsynn? Graysynn? PAXTYNN?! Are any of you real??? According to the Strib's Minnesota baby name database, no, none of them are. But we're still choosing to believe in this unholy tragedeigh trinity.
