Lepot Chinese Hotpot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will close after its final service Sunday, October 25. The Dinkytown restaurant’s owners announced the decision October 11, citing lease-related issues and saying they have no current plans to relocate or reopen.
The restaurant is at 507 14th Avenue Southeast, near the University of Minnesota. Bring Me The News reported the announcement October 12, quoting the owners as describing the restaurant as a place into which they had poured their hearts, passion and countless hours.
Lepot opened in spring 2017. In an interview that November with ThreeSixty Journalism, co-owner Brandon Su said he grew up near Beijing and wanted to bring the flavors he missed from home to Minnesota. The long winters, he observed, made the state particularly well suited to hot pot.
Its tabletop arrangement was a deliberate choice. Su and his partners opted for individual small pots rather than one large shared vessel, letting diners choose their own broth and ingredients. The original offerings included meat and vegetable combinations, noodles, lotus root, kelp and dried bean sticks.
That setup gives a table room for different appetites and different spice tolerances. One diner can pursue a mild broth while another conducts more ambitious negotiations with the mala. Lepot’s individual burners made both possible at the same dinner.
The restaurant’s AYCE chapter came later. A firsthand visit published by My Annoying Opinions in August 2024 described an all-you-can-eat option that had been added earlier that year, alongside the existing “Pick Your Own” à la carte menu.
That visit documented server-delivered ingredient plates and a dipping-sauce station, preserving the individual-pot approach while adding unlimited ordering. The kitchen’s selections could keep coming, with each diner still in charge of the broth simmering in front of them.
The owners have not publicly detailed the lease issues in the reported announcement. They have, however, given diners a firm final date. October 25 is the last service on the calendar for a Dinkytown restaurant whose particular contribution to a Minnesota winter was a simmering pot within easy reach.
