Review: Mak-'amham/Cafe Ohlone

The latest iteration of Cafe Ohlone, a restaurant dedicated to Indigenous foods from Vincent Medina (East Bay Chochenyo) and Louis Trevino (Carmel Valley Rumsen), ‘ottoy serves diners in a space at the Hearst Museum at the University of California, Berkeley, a building formerly named after the anthropologist who falsely declared the Ohlone tribe extinct. In Chochenyo, the language of the Ohlone people, ‘oṭṭoy means to heal, and every aspect of the restaurant is dedicated to that goal, from shellmounds representative of the tribal gravesites raided by UC researchers, to a menu that marries traditional Ohlone dishes like tan oak acorn bisque or clams and mussels with contemporary-feeling offerings like a chia and hazelnut pudding. “This is part of our living culture,” Medina says of the restaurant’s mix of celebration and acknowledgement, of old and new. “We are fully embracing all our lived experiences.”