Introducing the new Ohlone-crafted cafe at Lawrence Hall of Science

How do a smoked duck sandwich and chia seed pudding support the aims of The Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), a UC Berkeley-affiliated museum dedicated to engaging learners and inspiring them with the power of science, as well as championing equity and social justice?

These traditional Ohlone dishes, now featured at ‘ammatka, a new cafe on its bottom floor, perfectly align with those goals as part of the LHS’s ’ottoy initiative, whose mission is to “foster understanding and respect for Ohlone people and culture.” (‘ottoy means “to repair” in Chochenyo, the language of the Ohlone people.)

Behind the ‘ottoy initiative and the new restaurant are Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, partners in life and numerous endeavors, who have had a ground-shaking effect on Berkeley and the East Bay, starting in 2018, when they opened Cafe Ohlone on the back patio of University Books on Bancroft Avenue. Their restaurant was the first in the world to serve Ohlone cuisine. The pair had met several years previously at a Cal program to revitalize indigenous languages. They are both Ohlone, from families that have called the East Bay home for countless generations. When University Books closed during the pandemic, they pivoted to making food boxes of their traditional Ohlones dishes and imagined their next move. Serendipitously, they were able to open their next restaurant “ottoyak’ in 2022 on the patio outside the Hearst Anthropology Museum (after the building was de-named for Alfred Kroeber, who had erroneously declared the Ohlones extinct). ‘Ottoy, the name of their reopened restaurant, means “repair.” This led to the ‘ottoy initiative at the LHS.

The Ohlone salad at ‘ammatka cafe features greens sourced from the Bay Area, pine nuts, black walnuts, blackberries, dried strawberries, edible flowers and more. Credit: Kelly Sullivan for East Bay Nosh

Since its inception in 2022, the director of the LHS, Dr. Rena Dorph, has championed this program of respect and repair, which is anything but a performatively mumbled land acknowledgement. Her goal: “bring awareness of the Ohlone culture, resilience, and presence of the community in Berkeley today to the larger East Bay Community.”

Visitors’ first glimpse of the LHS, which sits in the Berkeley hills with a fabulous view of the Bay, now includes a shining, golden greeting over the front door in both English and Chochenyo, aptly welcoming all into its newly rededicated space.

The native plant garden, which was the first project of the ‘ottoy initiative, has signage in Chochenyo and includes many native plants that tell the story of the land through an Ohlone lens, integrating traditional knowledge from Ohlone people with contemporary, university-based science.

The native plant garden at Lawrence Hall of Science is part of the ‘ottoy initiative. Credit: Kelly Sullivan for East Bay Nosh

In a room dedicated to The Future of Food, Medina and Trevino are featured in a film in the Food Heroes exhibit. Plus, some classic elements of Ohlone food culture, such as digging sticks, are also on display.

If you wander outside, past the bellowing animatronic dinosaurs, you may notice a small sign, labeled “an Ohlone Land restoration project” atop an otherwise nondescript hill. Just wait … 18,000 pollinator seeds and traditional Ohlone plants have been sowed with the help of Test Plot and Terremoto. Springtime should bring an explosion of orange poppies and purple lupin, as well as Monarch butterflies and bees.

Table placards at ‘ammatka explain some of the ingredients common in the Ohlone diet and their Ohlone names. Credit: Kelly Sullivan and East Bay Nosh

Medina and Trevino are thrilled that the LHS has made this commitment to working together and can see that there is a new way forward to respect and acknowledge Ohlone culture. “It’s so much more than a land acknowledgement,” Medina said. “It’s spreading the culture in these layered ways that teach and build up understanding. Then for Ohlone people, when they come here, they see themselves. So positive, because up until relatively recently, before the ‘ottoy initiative, there were a lot of closed doors at the university. And not a lot of ways that we were able to see our culture represented, or engage with the institution. But now, we are at the Lawrence, which we always like to think is high above the hill, the campus proper, while still being connected to the campus. It’s just the perfect place for this to unfold.”

A new Ohlone cafe

For a long time, Dorph had been looking to reopen the LHS cafe space, which has sat empty since the pandemic.

“Then, it became obvious that this was a match made in heaven,” says Dorph. “We had the space and the need for food service, and they had the vision — something very unique that could be attractive to the Berkeley community and beyond.”

Although a meal at Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino’s other restaurant, ‘ottoytak, which opened in 2022, located outside the Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the UC Berkeley campus, is an elegant repast, full of carefully prepared dishes with deep roots in an intentionally constructed site, imbued with cultural meaning, it is not a typical restaurant with regular hours.

First, it is outside, and seasonal, depending on the weather as well as UCB’s schedule. Since each tea or meal is presided over by Medina and Trevino, whose commentary on Ohlone history, culture, and foodways add to the experience, it is also dependent on their schedules. Additionally, at the moment, the University is in the midst of constructing a giant parking structure right next door, whose noise would interfere with the intimate meals in the garden.

For the latest information on the restaurant’s opening hours, check their website, which currently says the “seasonal restaurant is open to the public for occasional meals and private lunches. Our dining service will resume in Fall 2026.”

The cafe opened on the bottom floor of the museum in February, and the menu features family-friendly, Ohlone-inspired fare (with no dish costing more than $15.) The tables sport colorful toppers that illustrate traditional foods with Chochenyo words. Additional themed decor will appear in the next few months

Part of the Cal dining system, ‘ammatka was supposed to open in December, but faced an unusual constellation of issues that led to delays. For example, “We had to find special vendors,” said Dorph. “We couldn’t just use the regular food vendors because the cafe requires special ingredients such as chia flour, black walnuts, and smoked duck.” She added, “As you can imagine, they don’t serve smoked duck in the residence halls.”

First, procuring the right cooking tools took time. Then, the training was especially involved at ‘ammatka (which means dining place in Chochenyo), as Medina and Tervino went beyond sharing a conventional recipe, sharing their traditional cultural knowledge. One challenge was translating traditional measuring techniques into standardized cooking protocol. As Medina explains in a recent Civil Eats piece, the older generation who taught him and Trevino many recipes had so much experience in the kitchen they did not need to use measuring cups. They just seasoned as necessary till the flavor was right. Louis’s grandmother, Mary Lou Yamas, for example, devised techniques to measure salt and other seasonings by placing them on the palm of her hand in appropriately sized circles.

“At ‘ammatka, we have a culinary team in the kitchen,” explained Medina in Civil Eats, “and you can’t always describe seasonings by the size of the circles they make. As culinary directors, it’s been a very fun process to standardize our experiences in cooking.”

The menu at ‘ammatka includes a smoked duck sandwich (top), and tater tots with aioli. Credit: Kelly Sullivan for East Bay Nosh

As for the menu, the classic Ohlone salad is a multi-hued bowl of East Bay greens festooned with pine nuts, black walnuts, blackberries, dried strawberries, edible flowers and more. A stand-out sandwich is the smoked duck with Mt. Tam triple cream cheese and house-made rose hip jam. Yes, dino chicken bites and tater tots are also on the menu, but accompanied by a tangy green aioli made from locally grown herbs (tarragon, oregano, sage, chives). Beverages include Elderflower soda, or a daily tea such as stinging nettle rose bud. For dessert, try chia seed flour brownies with black walnuts or oat milk chia pudding with rose hip jam. What other eatery would give you the option to “add candy-cap mushroom whipped cream to any dessert”?

Since “seasonality” is an essential element of Ohlone cooking, expect the menu to change periodically throughout the year. For example, spring will bring a blanched stinging nettle pizza, with chopped spring onions. Some of the ingredients for the dishes come from the Indigenous garden Medina and Trevino work on with the Native American Student Development Center at Cal.

(Top) Lawrence Hall of Science director Dr. Rena Dorph has made increasing Ohlone representation at the science center one of the chief initiatives of her tenure. (Bottom) Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino have worked on several pieces of the ‘ottoy initiative at LHS, including an interactive display that includes an avatar of the 95-year-old matriarch of Medina’s family. Credit: Kelly Sullivan for East Bay Nosh

“This is one of the most exciting and uplifting partnerships that I’ve had in my whole job,” says Dorph. “The idea of repair means something to everyone. And that we’re becoming a place where the Ohlone community feels so integrated and connected … This is a true embodiment of us trying to figure out how to make things feel right again.”

There are many more plans for integrating Ohlone culture into the LHS. One of the most intriguing ones will be installed in the front lobby this spring. The mixed reality game was designed by a group of Ohlone teens, called the Ohlone Science Diplomats Program. When museum patrons enter, they can gather “virtual acorns” from three standing trees, while an avatar of Auntie Dottie (based on the real-life 95-year-old matriarch of Medina’s family) provides a lesson on how to respect nature (i.e., don’t grab all the acorns for yourself; you have to share them with the forest animals).

Medina and Trevino are thrilled with what the ‘ottoy initiative has accomplished so far, as well as its future plans.

“Everybody benefits here, the young learners who are coming here, who aren’t Ohlone, they get to see the oldest traditions of this space in innovative fun ways that teach them and will be something they remember as they grow. The parents who come here get to learn about complex topics — land stewardship, traditional foods, ecology, language — in a way that also sparks their imaginations,” Medina said. “For Ohlone people, when we walk into those doors and see the acknowledgement to place, when you see Ohlone youth designing these mixed reality exhibits, that can show them that this space is working with them from these young years of their life.”

The watercress wrap (top) and oat milk chia pudding are two dishes at ‘ammatka featuring ingredients typical in the Ohlone diet. Credit: KellySullivan for East Bay Nosh

Medina is especially touched to see Ohlone elders, like his Aunty Dottie, being greeted by the director of the Lawrence and walking into this space in friendship. One of the ways Medina and Trevino typically close meals at their other dining space is to remind diners that the knowledge they have just gained leaves the gated garden with them and spreads into the world.

“It’s the same thing here,” Medina said. “That knowledge spreads downhill and then teaches the populace here on Ohlone land, the richness, the sophistication, and the beauty of our culture.”

If you just come to the LHS for lunch at the cafe, you don’t have to pay for general admission to the museum. Just let the front desk know.

Introducing the new Ohlone-crafted cafe at Lawrence Hall of Science

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