Fry bread pop-up sparks long lines at Bushwick park in NYC

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• Food shaped by history
• What to expect at the park
• Part of a larger movement

In early August, Raini Skye Field quietly began bringing a family tradition to Bushwick: fry bread sold from a weekend pop-up at Maria Hernandez Park. The effort, called Lakota Frybread Co., aims to introduce New Yorkers to a dish that carries both difficult history and deep cultural meaning.

Field, who identifies with the Miniconjou Lakota, frames the pop-up as more than a food stall. It’s a way to share a culinary practice that emerged under harsh conditions and has since become a marker of Indigenous resilience.

Food shaped by history

The style of fried bread Field serves traces its origins to ingredients distributed on many reservations—flour, oil, water and sugar—rather than to pre-contact Indigenous diets. Those rations altered traditional foodways, and fry bread is often discussed as a product of survival and adaptation.

Field chooses to foreground that history while also celebrating family recipes: her version was taught to her by an aunt on the Cheyenne River Reservation, where her mother grew up in Eagle Butte. Raised in Dallas, Field says reconnecting with relatives during visits home inspired her to bring this part of Lakota food culture to New York.

Before launching the pop-up, Field spent years in customer-facing roles around the city and considered pairing up with friends who run complementary food projects—one acquaintance operates an Indigenous herbal tea pop-up. That mix of community ties and hands-on experience helped push her from idea to reality.

What to expect at the park

On Sundays at noon, Lakota Frybread Co. offers freshly fried rounds sold with simple accompaniments. Field keeps the menu modest while experimenting with traditional elements she learned from elders.

Item	Price	Notes
Fry bread	$5	Served with complimentary jams, honey or powdered sugar
Wojapi (warm berry sauce)	Coming soon	Recipe from an elder on Field’s mother’s reservation; currently being tested
Teas (cedar / čeyaka)	$2	Rotating weekly between cedar and mint-style čeyaka

Field says wojapi—an Indigenous berry-based sauce—will be added to the offering once she finalizes her recipe. She’s also exploring events beyond the weekly park appearance and hopes to eventually operate a food truck to serve hot, freshly made fry bread around the city.

Part of a larger movement

Field places her pop-up within a broader trend of Indigenous chefs bringing Native cuisines into public view. She points to figures such as Sean Sherman and institutions like the Sioux Chef that have raised national awareness for contemporary Indigenous foodways. Her own approach is deliberately low-barrier: accessible price points, a public park setting and familiar accompaniments make fry bread an easy entry point for New Yorkers unfamiliar with Lakota fare.

“On the reservation, selling fry bread and small pastries outside grocery stores is ordinary,” she has explained—so Lakota Frybread Co. aims to create a similar casual way for city residents to experience those flavors.

• Where: Maria Hernandez Park, Bushwick, Brooklyn
• When: Sundays at noon (pop-up launched early August)
• Why it matters: Offers an accessible window into Indigenous culinary history and contemporary practice

For readers, the pop-up represents both a chance to taste a dish with a layered past and an opportunity to engage with a living cultural tradition. As Field refines recipes and explores a food-truck model, the project may widen how New Yorkers encounter and understand Indigenous food beyond restaurants and high-end tasting menus.