ST PAUL, Minn. — It's National Small Business Week and the spotlight is on several Twin Cities area businesses.
Just days after the Biden Administration named Afro Deli & Grill owner Abdirahman Kahin the National Small Business Person of the Year, the nation's first-ever second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman visited the downtown St. Paul restaurant.
"It's the American dream," Emhoff said in a press conference Wednesday. "It's the American success story. I myself was a small business owner in L.A. I had my own law firm and I know what it's like to build something, make payroll."
"It's a huge honor for me and for small businesses around the country and especially the 500,000 small businesses in Minnesota," Kahin added.
The second gentleman also stopped by Asia Mall in Eden Prairie, which opened for the first time last fall. Michael Bui owns three restaurants within the mall – Bober Tea, Mochi Dough and Pho Mai – as well as several more restaurants throughout the metro.
He said a Small Business Administration loan helped make it possible for him, his wife and their business partner to be located in Asia Mall.
"Our first restaurant was a hole in the wall," Bui said. "With this restaurant, we wanted to elevate the scale to fit a first-class mall … Normally on weekends, we'll have lines out the door."
All of the stores and eateries in Asia Mall surround a fresh market on the first floor.
"The grocery store is terrific," Bui said. "When we run out of ingredients we just walk over and grab it."
U.S. Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) stepped in to stock shelves and work the register in the market before joining Emhoff to tour the mall and highlight Bui's businesses.
"We can't wait for [Emhoff] to try our donuts, mochi donuts, made of rice flour," Bui said. "It's definitely an honor, but we treat every guest at our restaurant the same. So whether you're the vice president's husband or whether you're my neighbor or whether you're just a guest … we want to provide a great product."
Emhoff went on to visit Sciencix in Burnsville, which was named National Exporter of the Year. He also participated in an economic development roundtable at Adama Restaurant and Awash Bakery in Columbia Heights and presented awards to nine other small businesses with Governor Tim Walz at the Landmark Center in St. Paul.
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