Jun 13, 2022 - Food and Drink

James Beard Awards names Owamni this year's best new restaurant

Dana Thompson and Sean Sherman of Owamni.

Owamni's Dana Thompson and Sean Sherman. Photo: Monica Eng/Axios

Owamni won best new restaurant at the James Beard Awards Monday night, beating out 10 competitors across the country for one of the industry's highest honors.

The big picture: The full-service Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis has received local and national acclaim since opening in 2021, including a spot on the New York Times' Restaurants List.

What he's saying: "I was so surprised, but I am very proud," chef and co-owner Sean Sherman told Axios Chicago's Monica Eng.

  • "Not only can we bring this back to Minneapolis, we can carve a path for more Indigenous people to do this work and push to the front line."

Of note: Sherman, Jorge Guzmán of Petite Leon and Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen lost their bids for best Midwestern chef to Dane Baldwin, of The Diplomat in Milwaukee.

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