This piece was featured first on Dec 18 for One Good Thing, a weekly newsletter brought to you by Alexis Madrigal about his take on Bay Area art, culture & nature. Subscribe today.
The Lawrence Hall of Science is an imposing building set in the Berkeley hills, right near the crest of the ridge. It was built in the mid-1960s and designed by the legendary Bay Area architecture firm Anshen and Allen. The Lawrence is known for its planetarium, and (speaking only for myself) it’s the kind of place I took my toddlers when I was exhausted and wanted to feel like I wasn’t just sticking them in front of a screen. It’s lively. The exhibits are fun. There is a perpetual din of kid stuff happening.
But, unlike the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, which has fantastic food, the Lawrence cafeteria was not a site of fine dining. It was more middle school than Michelin, you know? You really had to pack a lunch.
So, when I got an invite to a sneak preview of their new restaurant, I was intrigued. It’s called ‘ammatka, which means “the dining hall” in Chochenyo, the language that the Ohlone tribes around the East Bay spoke.
The cafe is a manifestation of the deepening relationship between indigenous restauranteurs Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino and UC Berkeley. They call this initiative ’ottoy, another Chochenyo word that describes “a philosophy and intention of repair and mending.”
This might not be surprising if you don’t know the history of University of California and the East Bay Ohlone people, but it is dark. Albert Kroeber, a major Berkeley anthropologist, declared the Ohlone culturally “extinct,” which led to them being delisted from the Federal tribal register. (We did a whole show about this history.)
Long story short, repair is necessary, and this is one way that it is being brought into being.
Chochenyo signage is now going up at Lawrence Hall of Science and native gardens are being installed with the direction of Ohlone people. And it’s in this context that this new restaurant will open next month.
Now, about the food! It was delicious. In their previous restaurants, Medina and Trevino have played with more dogmatic constructions of Ohlone foods. They used only ingredients that could have been found before colonial contact, for example. Or they relied on recipes that might have been possible during the Mission-era of indigenous life in the East Bay.
For this cafe, which will be serving many kids and parents, they’ve become more playful with the use of native ingredients. So, yes, goose berries and native nuts and salads composed with local greens and herbs. But also tater tots, served alongside an aioli flavored with native herbs. And yes, smoked duck, but it will be served on regular bread and with Cowgirl Creamery cheese.
One standout from the preview meal (aside from the duck sandwich, which was a banger) was the chia pudding with rose jam. The floral notes of the rose added a sweet complexity to the simple chia pudding. I could eat that for breakfast every day.
People often wonder whether land acknowledgements and other symbolic recognitions of indigenous life and culture make a difference. I’m not sure, myself, but when I see indigenous perspectives integrated more deeply into organizations, I get excited. If all of us are ever going to naturalize to place here in the Bay Area, as many-generation residents of this place, we need and want those with the deepest roots involved in all of our core institutions, from the tater tots to very tops.
Alexis Madrigal, Co-Host, Forum
My Tipline
- Make a last minute plan for tonight!
- Come to the Oakland Review of Books Holiday party at Local Economy.
- Go see 4 Non Blondes, my first favorite band.
- Come to the Oakland Review of Books Holiday party at Local Economy.
- Go see 4 Non Blondes, my first favorite band.
- Or get some last minute shopping in via Coyote Media’s Holiday Art Market map.
- Or plan ahead for this mushroom walk (!) at UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.
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