Owamni by the Sioux Chef | |
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Restaurant information | |
Established | July 19, 2021 |
Owner(s) | North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) |
Chef | Sean Sherman |
Food type | Native American |
Street address | 420 South 1st Street |
City | Minneapolis |
State | Minnesota |
Postal/ZIP Code | 55401 |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 44°58′52″N93°15′37″W / 44.98111°N 93.26028°W |
Website | owamni |
Owamni by the Sioux Chef, or simply Owamni, is a Native American restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, that overlooks the Mississippi River. Owamni's majority Native American staff serves a menu made from indigenous ingredients such as game meats, corn, and wild plants. [1] The restaurant does not serve ingredients that were introduced to the region by Europeans, including butter, dairy, sugar, black pepper, wheat, chicken, beef, and pork. [2]
As of 2023 the restaurant is run as a not-for-profit. [3]
Owamni opened on July 19, 2021. It is located in Mill Ruins Park, near Saint Anthony Falls. The name Owamni derives from the Dakota name Owámniyomni for St. Anthony Falls, which roughly translates to "place of the falling, swirling water". [4] The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and Parks Foundation raised money to honor the indigenous heritage of the falls. They cooperated with architects Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson to build the restaurant Owamni on the second floor of the nineteenth century Columbia flour mill. [5] [6] A red neon sign inside the restaurant says, "You Are on Native Land". [7]
The restaurant was originally co-owned by cofounders Dana Thompson and Sean Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe who is also the head chef. [8] [9] Nearly two-thirds of the 70 staff members are Native American, representing several tribes: Anishinaabe, Mdewakanton and Wahpeton-Sisseton Dakota, Navajo, Northern Cheyenne, and Oglala Lakota. [9] In 2023 the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS) acquired the restaurant to be run as a not-for-profit. [3]
Some of the dishes served include amaranth tostadas with dip made from tepary beans and smoked trout, a crispy cricket seed mix with chili and maple, and bison tartare garnished with wasna and curled crackers made of wild rice and corn's ancestor, teosinte. [10] Also served are sandwiches—arepas heaped with ground elk, sweet potatoes, and pepitas, [11] or, turkey, [12] or, the three sisters: black bean pureé, pickled squash, and corn. [13] Wojabe, a foraged berry sauce traditionally made with chokeberries, tops both sweet desserts and savory dishes. [14] [11]
The restaurant "breaks its decolonized rule with beverages" by serving coffee, [7] indigenous wine, [4] and alcohol-free cocktails. [4] Beer comes from breweries owned by women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) individuals. [4]
On opening, recognition came from local, national, and international reviewers. [15] Less than one year after opening, [5] Owamni won the James Beard Foundation Award for best new restaurant in 2022. [16] [17]
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The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western Dakota (Wičhíyena). Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
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The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen is a recipe book written by Sean Sherman with Beth Dooley, published by the University of Minnesota Press in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sean Sherman is an Oglala Lakota chef who was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and is currently based in South Minneapolis. Sherman opened an Indigenous cuisine restaurant within the Water Works park development project overlooking Saint Anthony Falls and the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis in 2021.
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Indigenous cuisine is a type of cuisine that is based on the preparation of cooking recipes with products obtained from native species of a specific area.
Sean Sherman is an Oglala Lakota Sioux chef, cookbook author, forager, and promoter of indigenous cuisine. Sherman founded the indigenous food education business and caterer The Sioux Chef and cofounded with then-partner Dana Thompson the nonprofit North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS). He received a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and his 2017 cookbook, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, won the 2018 James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook. In 2022 the restaurant he co-owned with Thompson, Owamni, won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.
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