Hola Arepa Says Hola Aliveness

Eat delicious food and support a good cause on April 30!

It’s a Thursday night, and the aroma of braised beef, plantains and empanadas sweeps through the air, creating a vibrant energy as everyone gathers for delicious meals and a good cause. Sound like a good time? You’re in luck! The 32nd annual Dining Out For Life Minnesota fundraiser, supporting The Aliveness Project, returns April 30, and Hola Arepa is participating!

Hola Arepa opened in 2011 by award-winning chef Christina Nguyen and her partner Birk Grudem. It started off as a food truck with next to nothing before opening up as a brick-and-mortar in 2014. The restaurant serves its take on Latin street food with a tropical Latin American beach-themed space inspired by their travels.

The star dish is the arepa, which is like a sandwich and a taco put together with flavor combos such as braised beef and plantains or sweet potato and bean, all topped with their signature Hola sauce. Nguyen’s takes on dishes aren’t always traditional; they are inspired by her travels throughout Latin America and have her own spin on the flavor palette she thinks will be delicious.

Nguyen started the food truck with very little experience in a professional kitchen and a small team of six, whereas now they have around 50 people. Although it was a wild learning curve, she says it was a fun challenge that led her down the path to owning two successful restaurants in the Twin Cities.

Since she was young, she dabbled in cooking and fell into the role of a chef without formally training to be one. Her love of food and feeding people amplified when she and Grudem started their food truck, which was inspired by street food vendors from her travels in Vietnam and Latin America.

“I just have always had an appreciation for the street food vendors of the world and their entrepreneurial spirit of setting up a little stand or shop and making a couple of things really well, so that’s what I wanted to do,” Nguyen says. 

Nguyen traveled a lot to places in Latin America, India and Southeast Asia when she was younger and says her drive to learn how to cook dishes was fueled by wanting to recreate some of the dishes she tried, ultimately inspiring her love for and curiosity about cooking. 

Their travels also inspired her second restaurant, Hai Hai, meaning “two two” in Vietnamese, a nod to the space’s past as a dive bar named Deuce Deuce. You’ll find more than traditional Vietnamese dishes there — the restaurant shines a light on lesser-known regional dishes and dishes inspired by her own childhood, as well as new and original offerings.

“It felt like a gamble at the time because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if what we were working with was gonna be too unknown, too weird, too funky,” she says. “But, I was like, I want to have a place to bring all these delicious dishes that I just want to eat again, want other people to try, and have some bold flavors and unapologetically Southeast Asian food.”

Both spaces are homages to places held dear to their heart and were designed by Nguyen and Grudem, curating an experience with authentic decor and colors traditionally used in the origin countries, such as blue and white pottery and woven furniture.

“I always just have the intention of wanting to create a great space that’s fun, that feeds the people, like we don’t do super fancy food or anything,” Nguyen says. “It’s approachable in atmosphere and price point, I’m just all about feeding people and giving them a space to gather.”

Hola Arepa has participated in Dining Out For Life for many years, helping out their neighbor Aliveness and supporting education and intention with this experience. Dining Out For Life is a 24-hour fundraiser where a portion of your bill at over 100 participating restaurants benefits The Aliveness Project and people living with HIV/AIDS in Minnesota.

Nguyen says it’s an especially important time to fundraise and support the community.

“Especially this year, especially in the Twin Cities, everybody has been doing so much giving,” Nguyen says. “The level of organization everybody has has been very inspiring and has made us so proud to be a part of our community and want to continue to do what we do and be where we are and to just serve our community the way that they have served and helped us.”

To keep the giving spirit going, gather your friends, family, acquaintances, friends of friends and more and come out on April 30. Grab one of Nguyen’s arepas or tostones (a double-fried green plantain topped with braised beef or Colombian-style cornmeal) and support a good cause this spring!
You can check out Hola Arepa’s website at holaarepa.com and learn more about Dining Out For Life at diningoutforlifemn.org.

This article was updated on April 2 to correct an erroneous reference to Dining Out for Life Minnesota 2026 being the 30th annual event to correctly refer to it as the 32nd annual event.