Cafe Ohlone

Cafe Ohlone, also called ‘oṭṭoy, is a restaurant in Berkeley, California at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. It was founded by Ohlone chefs Louis Trevino and Vincent Medina as a pop-up in 2018, and as a semi-permanent café in 2022. It features a seasonal menu of California Indian cuisine and is the world's only Ohlone restaurant.

History
Louis Trevino and Vincent Medina, who are partners, first met at an Indigenous language conference in 2014. The two began working together and founded mak-'amham — an Ohlone cultural organization — in September 2017. The following year, the two opened the first Indigenous restaurant in the state of California as a pop-up in the courtyard of the University Press Bookstore in Berkeley. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bookstore closed down in 2020, and Cafe Ohlone transitioned to a monthly meal kit program.

Cafe Ohlone's move to the UC Berkeley campus began in January 2021, when Berkeley anthropology professor Kent Lightfoot wrote an article in the Daily Cal suggesting that the university — which was then renaming a building named after anti-Indigenous anthropologist Alfred Kroeber — should instead take concrete steps to support Ohlone people. Lightfoot suggested the university find a home on campus for Cafe Ohlone.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ and Lauren Kroiz, the Hearst Museum director, helped push the Cafe through the approval process, and the Berkeley location opened at the Hearst Museum in 2022.

Architecture and design
The Hearst Museum cafe was designed by Terremoto and is meant to resemble an Ohlone village, with paths surrounded by native plants and flowers. The tables and seats are made with reclaimed California redwood, with a long redwood table surrounded by mamakwa, wild ginger, and ‘enesmin reserved for Ohlone elders. Native artist Jean LaMarr contributed a building-sized mural which depicts Ohlone ancestors looking down, with chipped glass to resemble stars in the night sky.

Menu
Cafe Ohlone features a seasonal menu based on historic and recreated Ohlone recipes. The first iteration of the cafe served rose hip tea, which was used by Ohlone historically to soothe the respiratory system during fire season. The menu sought to stick to pre-colonial Ohlone cuisine, avoiding gluten, refined sugars, dairy, soy, pork, corn and legumes, and used salt from the shallow marshlands of San Lorenzo Creek.

At the Hearst Museum location, Cafe Ohlone serves four types of meals: tea hour, weekend brunch, weekly lunch, and dinner. Foods served are usually grown and collected locally, from the tidal marshes and hills in the East Bay, such as native rainbow trout and quail, rose hips, potato, and hazelnuts. Dishes have included venison chile Colorado and walnut oil cake with candy cap mushrooms.

Honors
In 2023, Medina and Trevino were semifinalists in the James Beard Foundation Award’s Emerging Chef category. The same year, Condé Nast Traveler listed Cafe Ohlone as one of the forty best new restaurants in the world.