Chief Seattle Club launches café showcasing Indigenous foods
Chief Seattle Club, a nonprofit that provides social services to Seattle’s urban Native people, has a new café featuring Indigenous foods. The name of the café is ?ál?al, pronounced "ahl-ahl."
"?ál?al means home in Lushootseed," said café manager and chef Anthony Johnson. "And Lushootseed is the Native language of the Puget Sound.”
Johnson says part of the cafe's mission is to uplift and showcase Indigenous foods like blue corn mush, bison tacos, and wild rice and wojapi parfait. Most of the ingredients are sourced from Native growers and producers around the country.
For now, the menu will be limited, but Johnson hopes that will change.
“We’re trying to serve as many types of traditional foods from various regions of the country as we can,” he said.
The café anchors Chief Seattle Club's newly opened affordable housing project in Pioneer Square and is open to the public.
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Ruby de Luna
Reporter
Ruby de Luna is a reporter with a focus on food and how it intersects with health, communities, and culture. She has also reported on health care, and immigrant communities.
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