Saturday Dumpling Co., the Minneapolis restaurant started by University of Minnesota alumni Linda Cao and her husband, Peter Bian, is making its Minnesota State Fair debut this year as one of nine new food vendors for 2026.
The fair, which runs Aug. 27 through Labor Day, Sept. 7, will host Saturday Dumpling Co. at the Food Building's east wall. The stand is bringing two fried options: Chinese Sausage & Cheese Poppers and Ube Cheesecake Wontons. Salted Mango Yuzuade rounds out the menu.
Cao and Bian's dumpling business started small: during the pandemic, the couple sold Chinese dumplings made from Bian's mother's recipes over Instagram, with customers picking orders up from their condo garage on Saturdays. By 2022, they'd moved into a commercial kitchen, and the operation has since grown into three full-service Saturday Dumpling Co. restaurants across Minneapolis, in Northeast, Malcolm Yards and south Minneapolis.
The couple is also in the process of opening Jujube, a full-service restaurant blending Texas-style barbecue with Asian flavors, in the former Izzy's Ice Cream space at 1100 2nd St. S in Minneapolis.