Dana Thompson is an American restaurateur and promoter of indigenous cuisine and food sovereignty. In 2022 her Minneapolis, Minnesota, restaurant Owamni won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.

Early life

Thompson was born in Sandstone, Minnesota.[1] Her father was a police officer.[2][3]

She is a descendant of Wahpeton-Sisseton and Mdewakanton Dakota through a grandfather, Clem Felix, who worked with Paul Durand to record place names.[3][4][5] After a scandal involving her father, her family relocated to Hibbing, Minnesota.[2] She started working in restaurants as a teenager.[6] She left home at age 15 and moved to Duluth and eventually Minneapolis, where she worked in the music industry and in a variety of retail organizations as a marketing and branding specialist.[2][7][8]

Career

Thompson is co-owner with Sean Sherman of The Sioux Chef, which started as a catering business,[9] and is its chief operating officer.[6][7] She and Sherman co-own two of its projects, Owamni,[6] a Minneapolis restaurant serving indigenous cuisine; and NATIFS, an indigenous food educational nonprofit organization for which Thompson is executive director.[2][7]

In 2014 Thompson and Sherman met at a dinner where he was preparing and speaking about indigenous foods, and she offered to become his manager.[2] They became romantically involved soon after and created a formal business partnership in 2015.[2] According to The New Yorker and MplsStPaul Magazine, Thompson's work helped Sherman gain wide recognition.[2][3]

In 2017 Thompson and Sherman founded North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems, or NATIFS, a nonprofit which promotes indigenous cuisine and food sovereignty.[2][7] The organization operates the Midtown Global Market and the Indigenous Food Lab.[3][10]

In 2021 Thompson and Sherman opened Owamni in Minneapolis.[2] The restaurant was funded by a 2016 Kickstarter campaign and through a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, which had around the same time announced a request for proposals for a venue then being planned at Mill Ruins Park.[11] In 2022 Owamni was named Best New Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation.[6][2] Later the same year, the Indigenous Food Lab was named one of Bon Appetit's Heads of the Table.[10]

Personal life

Thompson's romantic relationship with Sherman ended shortly after Owamni opened; they retain shared control of the businesses and nonprofits.[2] She has a daughter.[2] Thompson is also a singer and songwriter; she is a jazz and Americana vocalist and plays multiple instruments.[7][12]

References

  1. ↑ "Dana Thompson". First Avenue. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Kormann, Carolyn (2022-09-12). "How Owamni Became the Best New Restaurant in the United States". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Grumdahl, Dara Moskowitz (2021-01-17). "Behind The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Restaurant Owamni". Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  4. ↑ Burton, Nylah (2021-10-11). "With a Menu of Indigenous Ingredients, Owamni Is a Must-Visit Dining Destination". Vogue. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  5. ↑ Chu, Louisa (18 November 2021). "Owamni by The Sioux Chef boldly reclaims Indigenous food in the Midwest: 'It's an act of resistance that we exist'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Kiel, Aaron (2022-08-02). "At the Owamni Restaurant, 'Passive Education' About Indigenous Culture Is on the Menu". Bar & Restaurant. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Virtual Schoolyard Gardens Conference Keynote Speaker". www.arboretum.umn.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  8. ↑ Marsh, Steve. "At This Table We Sing With Joy, With Sorrow". Meal Magazine. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  9. ↑ Rayno, Amelia (14 September 2016). "Sioux Chef's Kickstarter breaks individual-backer record for restaurants". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  10. 1 2 "This Year's Heads of the Table Awards Celebrate Five Change-Makers". Bon Appétit. 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  11. ↑ Duncan, July 2022 Nicole. "Owamni's Journey to Becoming America's Best New Restaurant | FSR magazine". www.fsrmagazine.com. Retrieved 2023-05-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ Walsh, Jim (2021-06-11). "'Our whole mission is Indigenous education and Indigenous food access': A Q&A with owners of Owamni by The Sioux Chef". MinnPost. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
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