Owamni by the Sioux Chef

What does a cocktail program appear like with out spirits, citrus, or sugar? 

At Owamni, the acclaimed Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis, the reply may resemble the Dagwaagin, a squash-based shrub that will get its warmth from recent ginger, sweetness from maple syrup, and a lift of acidity from apple cider vinegar. Topped with soda water, it’s one of the crucial standard drinks on Owamni’s absolutely Indigenous zero-proof menu. 

This highlight on “decolonized” elements has garnered Owamni nonstop accolades since Lakota Sioux chef Sean Sherman opened the restaurant in the summertime of 2021. Dishes on the meals menu omit non-native elements like beef, dairy, and wheat flour to concentrate on Indigenous produce and recreation, and the beverage program has been a vital a part of Owamni’s imaginative and prescient since day one. 

The restaurant’s unique bar director and common supervisor Kareen Teague, a member of the Ojibwe tribe inside the Anishinaabe group, launched an revolutionary zero-proof cocktail menu with out cane sugar and citrus, counting on sweeteners like maple syrup and honey, in addition to acid sources that embrace tart sumac berries. The menu pays homage to Teague’s heritage with elements which can be native to the world like corn and currants, and Anishanaabe names for every drink. 

Teague has since parted methods to work because the bar supervisor at Dashfire Distillery in Minneapolis, however he maintains a relationship with Owamni, the place his sister, Jasmine, is now an integral a part of the bar workforce. Though the choice to concentrate on zero-proof cocktails partly developed from the dearth of a full liquor license, Jasmine says the non-alcoholic side is smart for the restaurant’s mission.

“We’ve seen firsthand what alcoholism has performed to our Indigenous neighborhood,” she says. “Kareen actually wished to concentrate on the medicinal a part of [non-alcoholic cocktails] and maintain the elements Indigenous.”

Most of the menu’s elements have been a part of the siblings’ upbringing on Minnesota’s Crimson Lake reservation. “We had so many crops and flowers rising up,” says Jasmine. “My mother named me after a flower. Then my dad would work with herbs and use them for lots of non secular practices.”

Their household’s ancestral data has been labored into all features of the restaurant’s drinks menu. 

“I wish to make it possible for every drink isn’t just one thing that’s scrumptious to eat however that it’s offering one thing for the physique as properly,” says Jasmine. 

Nettle leaf, for instance, accommodates calcium that may assist stop Kind 2 diabetes, she says, a prevalent situation of their neighborhood, whereas sage is a diuretic. Each discover their means into the Bashkodejiibik (the Anishanaabe phrase for sage), a drink that additionally contains bergamot and blackberry. Seasonality dictates the menu as properly. Manoomin (wild rice), harvested within the fall, discovered its means right into a horchata-like drink on final yr’s winter menu.

Owamni’s bar workforce works intently with the kitchen to attenuate meals waste. “That was one thing I realized early on in our tradition, that each a part of all the things all the time has a use,” says Jasmine, attributing this information to the Ojibwe tribe’s Seven Grandfather teachings.

Leftover aronia berries from a culinary occasion, for example, turned the bottom of the Ziiwiskaagamin,  a sour-style drink with cranberries, sumac, balsam fir, and chamomile. 

Owamni doesn’t skip alcohol fully, and gives a wine and beer menu. However like all the things on the restaurant, alternatives are chosen thoughtfully. Sherman has cultivated relationships with wine producers around the globe to create a wine choice that’s fully BIPOC-sourced, that includes Indigenous producers like te Pā, Camins 2 Goals, and Twisted Cedar, in addition to producers of colour from Mexico and South Africa. 

“Sean wished to select a platform in a usually white-dominated house,” says supervisor Chrissy Sierra. 

As with the zero-proof menu, the so-called limitations open up a world of prospects. “The enjoyable factor about Mexican wines is that they have not one of the identical guidelines as California or European wines,” says Sierra. For example, she factors to certainly one of her favourite alternatives, a Grenache-Mourvedre-Carignan mix from Valle de Guadalupe producer Bruma. “There’s no gatekeeping. You’ll be able to develop no matter you need in no matter area and simply see what sticks, what tastes good.” 

The bar employees at Owamni continues to develop, and the restaurant was not too long ago acquired by Sherman’s non-profit North American Conventional Indigenous Meals Methods (NATIFS), which can enable Sherman and his workforce to increase Owamni’s mission past Minneapolis and supply extra assets for Indigenous folks across the nation. It’s a mission that comes by clearly in every considerate foods and drinks merchandise on the menu. 

“A part of decolonization is getting again to our roots and counting on nature to heal us,” says Jasmine.