Food - Drink
The Minneapolis Restaurant Serving Up Exclusively Indigenous Cuisine
By MICHELLE WELSCH
Oglala Lakota Sioux chef Sean Sherman, nicknamed the "Sioux Chef," was born on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation before he began working in the food industry. After a trip to Mexico, Sherman was inspired to get in touch with his heritage and opened a restaurant with a focus on traditional North American dishes.
Sherman’s team of Indigenous chefs, researchers, activists, and foodies established the James Beard Award-winning OwamniYomni in Minneapolis. The restaurant supports local and national Indigenous food producers, and builds dishes around pre-colonial ingredients like fish, birds, insects, and wild plants.
Menu items include trout with white bean spread, Choginyapi corn sandwiches with elk, sweet potato, or vegetable pureé, and maple chaga cake made from wojape, berries, and candied walnuts. A seat at Owamni is one of the hardest reservations to get in the city, so when in Minneapolis, plan ahead to enjoy this truly unique eatery.