Gatherings Cafe

"A café led by Diné chef Brian Yazzie, known for Indigenous dishes like Red Lake walleye tacos and wild-rice salad. It is located at the Minneapolis American Indian Center." - Nylah Burton Nylah Burton Nylah Burton is a Chicago-based lifestyle writer who covers health, travel, identity, and social justice. Her original reporting and essays have appeared in New York magazine, Essence, Bustle, Travel + Leisure, The Nation, V

"Gatherings Cafe is one Native American eatery where you won’t find fry bread or other “commods,” slang for government commodities among indigenous populations. You won’t find sugary sodas either—just infused water and tea. The absence of these items from the cafe’s offerings is, in a way, the point. Nestled within the Minneapolis American Indian Center, this cafe looks to untangle colonial narratives from the story of indigenous foodways by emphasizing pre-contact ingredients.  After attending a craft workshop or visiting the center’s art gallery, choose from breakfast options such as a Red Lake Walleye Benny—with pike-perch cakes on wild rice bread with red pepper aioli—or a sweet potato cake with rosemary, wild rice, and maple syrup. Bison, which is braised for 48 hours with 11 different spices, anchors the lunch spread. The Bison Melt gets blueberry horseradish and provolone, while the BBLT gets bison, bacon, lettuce, and tomato with a sun-dried tomato aioli.  While the cafe’s menu casts a warm glance at Native American culinary history without the stain of colonial oppression, it does so to make way for a brighter, healthier future with their wholesome offerings." - ATLAS_OBSCURA

"When the pandemic hit we stopped traveling. Minneapolis has been my home base for the last decade, and I wanted to help my community. So I called Ben Shendo, a friend of mine who was the executive chef of Gatherings Cafe inside the Minneapolis American Indian Center, asking him what I could do. Two days later we cleared the café’s pantry and began cooking 250 hot meals a day for elders, using 50 percent native ingredients. In September, Ben left the cafe and I got the opportunity to take it over. Now I’m reimagining what Gatherings Cafe can be. I’ve prioritized not just hiring Indigenous womxn as cooks but having a gender- and nonbinary-balanced atmosphere to dismantle the patriarchy of the kitchen. We also started an internship program, run by our business manager Vanessa Casillas who is a citizen of Ho-Chunk Nation. It teaches Indigenous community members the basics of cooking as well as the fundamental Indigenous foods." - ByBrian Yazzie

"Update as of November 2023: The cafe is closed indenfinintly undergoing renovations. Gatherings Cafe is one Native American eatery where you won’t find fry bread or other “commods,” slang for government commodities among indigenous populations. You won’t find sugary sodas either—just infused water and tea. The absence of these items from the cafe’s offerings is, in a way, the point. Nestled within the Minneapolis American Indian Center, this cafe looks to untangle colonial narratives from the story of indigenous foodways by emphasizing pre-contact ingredients. After attending a craft workshop or visiting the center’s art gallery, choose from breakfast options such as a Red Lake Walleye Benny—with pike-perch cakes on wild rice bread with red pepper aioli—or a sweet potato cake with rosemary, wild rice, and maple syrup. Bison, which is braised for 48 hours with 11 different spices, anchors the lunch spread. The Bison Melt gets blueberry horseradish and provolone, while the BBLT gets bison, bacon, lettuce, and tomato with a sun-dried tomato aioli. While the cafe’s menu casts a warm glance at Native American culinary history without the stain of colonial oppression, it does so to make way for a brighter, healthier future with their wholesome offerings. None" - Collector of Experiences, collinqburke, lukefater