Chef Cliff Rome brings South Side flavors to Obama Presidential Center

Chef Cliff Rome’s assignment at the Obama Presidential Center put an Englewood-born restaurateur at the center of a bigger question: who gets to define Chicago on one of the city’s most watched campuses? The Obama Foundation announced on Feb. 20, 2025, that Rome and Bon Appétit Management Company would work together under the BAMJoy banner to handle food service and catering across most of the site, including the public restaurant, café and event rentals.

That arrangement matters because the Foundation framed dining as part of the visitor experience, not an afterthought. It said the campus would offer a "world-class culinary experience" rooted in South Side ingredients and community ties, while the vast majority of the grounds, including the restaurant and café, would be free and open to the public. In a city where major developments often showcase neighborhood identity without sharing much economic power, Rome’s selection signaled a deliberate choice to put a local operator in a visible role at a national landmark.

Rome brought more than 30 years of culinary experience and a business footprint that already reflected South Side institutions. He founded Rome’s Joy Companies, which includes Peach’s Restaurant, Rome’s Joy Catering and the Parkway Ballroom. The Obama Foundation later cast the partnership as bigger than a menu, with Rome saying it was meant to tell "a South Side story" through every plate. That framing matters on the South Side, where community pride and economic exclusion have long existed side by side.

The center’s food program also extended beyond a single chef. Eight other Chicago catering companies were selected to serve food at the Home Court athletic center, a detail that suggests the Obama Presidential Center wanted to distribute some of its spending across more local businesses. Tafari’s Kitchen, the comfort-food restaurant named for former Obama family chef Tafari Campbell, opened with a casual café on June 19, 2026, when the center opened to the public in Jackson Park. Campbell, who had worked on the White House kitchen team before becoming the Obama family’s personal chef, died in an accidental drowning in 2023 at age 45.

The early menu underscored the project’s attempt to balance memory, accessibility and Black Chicago culinary traditions. Diners saw the Obama Family Chili, Mrs. Robinson’s Red Rice and The Obama Burger, along with desserts from Brown Sugar Bakery and Justice of the Pies, both Black women-owned Chicago businesses. That mix of names and neighborhood vendors made the dining spaces feel less like a token nod to local culture and more like a claim that South Side businesses should help shape the institution’s public face.

Barack Obama visited Peach’s Restaurant in Bronzeville in May 2025, met with Rome and sampled shrimp and grits, salmon croquette and peach cobbler. He had given the culinary team three directives: the food had to be good, affordable and approachable, and he did not want anything fancy. For Rome and for the South Side businesses tied to the center, the real measure will be whether those words translate into sustained opportunity long after the opening ceremony fades.