TRADISHISH

Hoppen Hierarchy: ★★★⭑

Modern versions of indigenous food

Standout Dishes: NDN Tacos; Umonhon

For all the great food we have in Omaha, there is one cuisine that’s woefully underrepresented: indigenous food.

Native American food is so beautiful, resourceful, and unique, but there was simply nowhere to get it. That is, until a food truck opened in 2026. As its name implies, it’s not serving the exact traditional food that indigenous peoples created, but they’re trying to introduce those beloved dishes to Omaha by modernizing them.

Thanks goodness Omaha now has Tradishish. This is a cuisine that needs to be celebrated, and this food truck is a welcome gateway.

Tradishish is a food truck that makes appearances all over Omaha (follow their Facebook page to see the weekly schedule). It also serves out of the Drinkaway Lounge (5434 S 99th St).

It’s a concept brought together by the wife-husband team of Cassie and Quentin Hinman, who combine Cassie’s cooking acumen with Quentin’s kitchen experience and heritage to create a concept Omaha has long needed.

Indigenous food has become more widely accepted in recent years, and chefs all over the country serve traditional, pre-contact dishes. Tradishish isn’t quite that; it takes Native American dishes and updates them to match the modern Omaha palate.

Fry bread is a the perfect example. Back when native Americans were displaced and placed onto reservations, they established treaties that included rations, but they weren’t given the best food. Quentin explained on the Restaurant Hoppen podcast that kids were starving and the people needed to find ways to stretch the little food they had. They found a way to turn rancid flour into bread and fried it in the lard left over from the animals. It was a dish born out of desperation, but also resourcefulness and ingenuity.

Tradishish plays on this concept by turning it into the NDN Taco, its signature dish. The dough is puffed up and chewy, sort of like an exaggerated puffy taco. The frying process gives it a pleasantly crispy exterior. It’s light, savory, and rich, providing the perfect canvas for what Tradishish stuffs inside.

The accompaniments (salsa, lettuce, cheddar cheese, guacamole) are what you’d expect to find in the grocery store, and they work just fine. But the proteins are what make these tacos special.

The bison is lean and slightly sweet, while the beef is seasoned wonderfully to give it a robustly savory flavor. Chicken, steak, and beans are also options.

The fry bread taco still sticks relatively close to tradition, but Tradishish really goes off the board with its cheesesteak, which just happens to be one of Omaha’s finest.

The Umonhon, Tradishish’s take on a cheesesteak, has a completely different flavor profile than any you’ll find in Omaha. The raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce and pepper jack cheese melt together to give each bite a sweet, smoky, creamy bomb of flavor. The chopped sirloin is pleasant and tender, but the BBQ sauce provides the dominant flavor.

And the bread, a toasted hoagie courtesy of Le Quartier bakery, is fantastic. It has good body and is firm with pillowy, chewy insides. This is unlike any cheesesteak you’ll find in Omaha, and one you won’t soon forget.

Speaking of meats with a sweet sauce, the Choke Cherry Chicken is another strong option. Chicken thighs give the dish a richness that’s balanced by the sweet, tart choke cherry sauce, and the grilling process gives it a nicely caramelized exterior.

The side dishes aren’t quite as flavorly powerful as the mains, but they’re tasty enough. The best of the bunch is the Three Sisters Salad, Corn, beans, and squash are tossed with a bright, tangy vinaigrette to create a combination with great texture and a nice sweet, nutty flavor.

The Wild Rice is very tasty too, as the rice had just enough oily, buttery moisture without becoming too wet. It’s rich and nutty, and the rice is cooked to still have pleasant texture. The Spanish Rice is a bit of a miss, as it just simply doesn’t have much flavor.

And that stands out because everything else coming off of Tradishish punches your taste buds with unique flavor combinations no other Omaha concepts offer. The food truck includes “ish” in its name for a reason; these dishes aren’t strictly traditional. But they’re a solid gateway into not just a beautiful cuisine, but a culture, and Omaha is better to have them present.