More than 10 years ago, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama promised to bring the Barack Obama Presidential Center to the South Side of Chicago.
This summer the couple is delivering.
The presidential center, a 19-acre campus is set to open to the public on Friday, June 19. Tickets went on sale the first week of May and are already sold out through the end of October. News of its open date has already garnered splashy headlines and dozens of social media posts from community members lucky enough to score preview tickets.
The campus features two restaurants, fruit and vegetable garden, a NBA-regulation basketball court, a playground, Chicago Public Library branch and an indoor/outdoor art courtyard featuring sculptures and paintings from various artists. The cost for the center clocks in at $850 million and is privately funded. Food is a natural extension of the center’s mission and programming: the gardens and restaurants function not only as culinary spaces, but as sites of education, gathering, and sustained community connection.
Among early visitors was Chicago public library commissioner Chris Brown, who says “A lot of what you see across this campus reflects the best of how Chicago works. The Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and a range of cultural and community partners are all part of the fabric of the project.
But what exactly will the Obama Presidential Center and its broader presence on the South Side of Chicago look like?
From the beginning, Michael Strautmanis, chief corporate affairs officer for the Obama Foundation, says the Obamas were intentional about designing a space that felt like an invitation to the neighborhood. The decision to bring the presidential center to the city’s South Side created a vibrant and much-needed free social space for the community.
“Everything about the center’s programming is a bold and unapologetic statement that says ‘we will not deny access based on your class, race, gender,’” said Erick Williams, James Beard Award–winning chef and founder of Virtue Hospitality Group.
Neither restaurant requires a ticket to dine. Visitors can choose from two dining options: a grab-and-go cafeteria or sit down service which doesn’t require a reservation. BAMJoy, operated by chef Cliff Rome and Bon Appétit Management Company, lead food service and catering at the center.
First Lady Obama made international headlines when she broke ground on the South Lawn to make way for an 1,100-square-foot garden on March 20, 2009. It was the first major vegetable garden on the grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's World War II Victory Garden, which served as the blueprint for First Lady Obama. The original garden featured more than 55 varieties of fruits and vegetables and grew to be 2,800 square feet by the end of the Obama administration.
“The garden was discussed and envisioned from day one,” said Sam Kass, former White House chef, senior policy advisor for nutrition, and executive director of First Lady Obama's Let's Move! Campaign. He was an informal advisor to the Obama Presidential Center. “It was a key part of the plan.”
The garden is currently growing kale, collards, fennel, peas, beets, carrots, lettuces and edible flowers. As the seasons change, the crops will transition to summer offerings including sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, legumes and pollinator-friendly flowers like zinnia and sunflower. Produce grown in the gardens will be used on-site at the restaurants.
“The [White House] garden was a radical thing to do,” said Kass. “It now seems so normal that there's a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House, but picking the most iconic lawn in the world and planting eggplants, peppers and collard greens was something that was met with a lot of skepticism initially.”
What began as a national conversation about food, health, and access during the Obama administration is now being embedded physically in South Shore, the South Side neighborhood that shaped First Lady Obama’s early life. The center embraces food as a civic engagement tool, turning simple produce into community infrastructure.
“During much of the time we were creating the presidential center, it didn't have a grocery store within walking distance for this community,” said Strautmanis. “It is very meaningful that the Obamas chose to make this investment here and provide access and opportunity to explore the food we eat, where it comes from, how it's made.”
“Mrs. Obama has really always been focused on families and wanted to ensure families could feel comfortable here,” said Strautmanis. In particular, the center’s teaching kitchen will offer classes for children. A branch of the Chicago Public Library, in partnership with the Chicago Botanic Garden, will operate a seed library, distributing free seeds to curious gardeners. And of course, guest chefs will be invited to highlight different parts of the city.
Rome grew up on tales of the Parkway Ballroom, where jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie performed. He opened a co-working space inside the historical building and named it Parkway Social in homage to its past. The co-working space is where President Obama sat down with a group of 20 other diners to begin to finalize the center’s dining menu, three months ago.
“He was very hands-on from the beginning,” said Rome. “That night he had his pen and he went around the table asking questions and taking notes. It was hysterical, but he was on it. He said ‘no one's gonna come in here and say that I didn't check this.’”
The restaurant will feature a variety of fuss-free comfort food. Think chili, gumbo, and red rice . President Obama was involved from the outset and placed an emphasis on providing diners with approachable items and an affordable cost (the most expensive dish is $18).
The sitdown restaurant will have125 seats for indoor dining and a seasonal outdoor terrace of 36 seats. The cafe will have 81 seasonal outdoor seats and an additional 52 in its courtyard.
The restaurant is to be named in homage to Tafari Campbell, a former White House chef and private cook for the Obamas, who passed away in a tragic accident.
“I am elated when I think about the amount of restaurants and tours that are now coming south of Roosevelt Road,” said chef Rome. “For a long time there were very few operators and the ones that were here did not receive the accolades or the great reputation that they should have, despite feeding the community for decades.”
Rome came up cooking alongside culinary legends Roger Vergé, Bobby Flay, Charlie Trotter, and Todd English. He studied culinary arts in Paris and his résumé includes consulting in high-end fine dining. He is a highly sought after chef who would have done well in any major city. However, as a native of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, Rome intentionally invested in his hometown, opening his food business, Joy Companies, on the city’s South Side in 2000.
Since then, Rome steadily built his empire in the Bronzeville neighborhood to include a variety of businesses ranging from restaurants to an art gallery.
Rome paved the way for other chefs coming into the area. Chef Erick Williams opened Virtue, a Southern fine dining restaurant, in Hyde Park in 2018 and almost four years later, he won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Great Lakes Region. That same year Williams opened Daisy’s Po-Boy, a New Orleans-style Cajun and Creole eatery, and later added Cantina Rosa, an agave-based cocktail bar, in 2024 to his portfolio—all three on the same street.
More food entrepreneurs began to pop up along the way and cement the city’s South Side as a dining destination. Eric Williams (unrelated to Erick Williams of Virtue Hospitality Group) and Cecilia Cuff opened Bronzewille Winery in 2022. Mahari, a short walk from the center, opened in 2025 and highlighting the cuisine of the Black diaspora, has quickly become a city darling). The team behind Frontier, Ina Mae Tavern, and Migos Fine Foods, Brian Jupiter (a three-time James Beard Award semifinalist) and Azazi Morsi have brought Migos Fine Foods, their popular halal restaurant, to Bronzeville. In 2025, Lem’s Bar-B-Q, received the America’s Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation, after 70 years in business.
For Rome, these businesses represent more than local success stories; the center represents new momentum for the area. In May, for example, nationally-renowned artist Theaster Gates announced he would be opening a Korean-inspired tea salon and cocktail lounge with entrepreneur and friend Heiji Choy Black.