Dumped tapioca pearls and a staff beatdown: Dinkytown restaurants locked in public fight

Simmering tensions between two closely quartered Dinkytown restaurants boiled over this week after punches were thrown and their owners publicly accused each other of theft, assault and tampering with the security cameras.

Lepot Chinese Hotpot and Kung Fu Tea are separate but semi-related businesses co-located at 507 14th Av. SE., sharing a front door and dining space. They were both open on Thursday, but the atmosphere was awkward.

Earlier this week, Lepot Chinese Hotpot announced on Facebook that the owner of Kung Fu Tea and members of his family physically assaulted two of Lepot’s staff members Tuesday night in front of customers.

“We deeply apologize to all customers who were present and affected by this disturbing event. We’re working on resolving it internally,” Lepot said in its statement. The restaurant asked witnesses to share any footage they may have captured because the establishment security cameras were allegedly “destroyed” right after the attack.

Jikeng Chen is the owner of Kung Fu Tea. He is also part owner of Lepot Chinese Hotpot, whose other co-owners are Cong Chinh Luong and Dong Duy Nguyen.

One short clip making the rounds on social media shows a man wearing a Kung Fu Tea T-shirt punching another man who is seated at a table with his arms raised in self-defense.

Kung Fu Tea also issued a Facebook statement, accusing Lepot’s owners of turning off the security cameras, raiding Kung Fu Tea’s inventory and dumping out unused cases of milk and tapioca pearls worth potentially thousands of dollars over several months.

Minneapolis Police spokesperson Sgt. Garrett Parten characterized the incident as “mutual combat.”

“After speaking with witnesses and involved parties officers were unable to determine a primary aggressor with the provided information,” the public police report states. “Two males were transported by EMS to the hospital.”

In May and June, complaints were made with the Minneapolis Health Department accusing Kung Fu Tea of mixing drinks with expired syrups and toppings.

Health Department spokesperson Lisa Roberts said city inspectors investigated Kung Fu Tea following each complaint, but “did not observe violations related to the complaints,” which were closed.

“We suspect that a viral post on a popular food group here on Facebook, falsely accusing Kung Fu Tea- Dinkytown of using old/expired ingredients in our drinks, was also done by these same owners of Le Pot in an effort to further harm our business,” Kung Fu Tea said in its statement. “They are purposefully doing this with malicious intent.”

She said Luong and Nguyen became the majority owners of Lepot after purchasing 70% of the business from Kung Fu Tea’s Chen for about $100,000. Lepot’s owners have been working with the Trautmann Martin Law firm for some time on a civil matter affecting the business partnership, Anderson Ferreira said.