{"id":28965,"date":"2026-05-26T14:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/28965\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:13:13","slug":"stand-an-authentic-japanese-cafe-opens-in-miami-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/28965\/","title":{"rendered":"Stand, an Authentic Japanese Caf\u00e9, Opens in Miami, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"KenzieKenzie Motai and chef Shingo Akikuni. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

Michelin-starred Coral Gables destination Shingo<\/a> is a 14-seat restaurant with $275 seasonal tasting menus and an interior that was built in Kyoto before being disassembled, shipped and rebuilt at its final destination in Florida. Shingo<\/a>, which specializes in omakase featuring ultra-premium nigiri and signature items like eel with caviar, is perched at the pinnacle of Japanese fine dining in Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for their next restaurant, chef Shingo Akikuni<\/a> and partner Kenzie Motai<\/a> are aiming for something much more approachable. Stand,<\/a> which will debut its daytime service in Coral Gables on Thursday, May 28, is a 24-seat caf\u00e9 focusing on sandos, bento boxes and shio pan alongside matcha and coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you grow up in Japan, caf\u00e9 culture is so big, and those bakeries are in every neighborhood,\u201d Motai, who was born in Tokyo, tells Observer. \u201cI grew up going to bakeries. And in every kind of Japanese household, you have shokupan, Japanese milk bread, inside the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Motai and the Osaka-born Akikuni, Stand<\/a> is about going back to their roots and the food they enjoy eating day after day.<\/p>\n

\"\"Stand will open for daytime service in Coral Gables on Thursday, May 28. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been part of us,\u201d Motai says of his and Akikuni\u2019s love for Japanese caf\u00e9s. \u201cWe were trained in fine dining, but, as people, we\u2019re fairly casual. We wanted to create something that was more accessible. Shingo is expensive and not necessarily a concept that you can go to every single night. So our goal is to continue to create more Japanese food concepts and introduce more Japanese food and our culture to the people in Miami. We just celebrated three years of Shingo. And for a couple years now, we\u2019ve been talking about creating a nice neighborhood spot where we could have sandos and onigiri and bento for lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stand, which will also have its own private-label matcha from Japan and private-label coffee from Guatemala, while offering specialty drinks like matcha with strawberry puree, is inspired by both Japan\u2019s kissaten culture and its convenience-store fare. But this new restaurant is, of course, taking a chef-driven approach to its everyday food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Stand has its own private label matcha. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

Chef de cuisine Lania Andrade<\/a>, who was most recently Shingo\u2019s pastry chef, is leading a team that\u2019s baking its shokupan in-house. R&D for the milk bread was an arduous process. Andrade, Akikuni and Motai traveled to Japan last summer and tasted different shokupan. Motai, who spent the latter part of his childhood in New Jersey, also got some help from his parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had them ship shokupan from a caf\u00e9 that I grew up with,\u201d he says. \u201cIn New Jersey and in New York, there are a lot of Japanese people and Japanese bakeries and caf\u00e9s. There is something very authentic there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

After six months of testing to perfect Stand\u2019s pillowy milk bread, Motai is convinced that Stand\u2019s shokupan is just as authentic. The shokupan at Stand is the foundation of sandos filled with egg salad, chicken katsu, wagyu and other options. The caf\u00e9 also has toasts topped with flavors like pizza and sweet potato.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Stand\u2019s shio pan. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

And Stand is using the same dough for grab-and-go shio pan (buttery salt bread) with options including chocolate, sausage and curry.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurry is such a staple in Japanese households, and curry pan is something that I probably ate every single day growing up,\u201d Motai says.<\/p>\n

Beyond Stand\u2019s grab-and-go options, which also include onigiri, the restaurant offers made-to-order sandos, salads and bento boxes (with seasonal proteins, sides, rice and miso soup). Stand is keeping things accessible with shio pan that starts at $3.50, sandos that start at $12 and bentos available for less than $20.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The egg salad sandos at Stand. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like interest in Japanese food is at an all-time high,\u201d Motai says. \u201cWe feel a responsibility to give people the most authentic experience. We\u2019re really excited and happy to be able to share that cuisine in an approachable and affordable way. We feel like we\u2019re kind of Japanese ambassadors here in Miami. It\u2019s about having those authentic products that we grew up with and really enjoy eating every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stand is starting off as a walk-in daytime destination. The space will add dinner service, with reservations available, in the fall. That will be in the form of a dimly lit izakaya with a to-be-determined menu, which might include Japanese staples like karaage and ramen paired with sake, beer and wine.<\/p>\n

\"\"The caf\u00e9 offers sandos and toasts topped with flavors like pizza and sweet potato. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re bringing in a chef from Japan for the nighttime concept,\u201d Motai says. \u201cI think the izakaya allows us to explore a lot of different types of food. And if something sticks out and it becomes really popular, we might look at that and say, \u2018Hey, maybe we should open something based on that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stand is located at 98 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, FL 33134, and will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"At<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenzie Motai and chef Shingo Akikuni. Courtesy Salar Abduaziz Michelin-starred Coral Gables destination Shingo is a 14-seat restaurant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22671,3054,21873,1097,8,17,22668,22669,500,22666,22670,22663,22665,628,22672,22667,22673,22664],"class_list":["post-28965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-america-united-states","tag-chefs","tag-florida","tag-interviews","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-kenzie-motai","tag-lania-andrade","tag-lifestyle","tag-lifestyle-interviews","tag-miami","tag-miami-restaurants","tag-nightlife-dining","tag-restaurants","tag-shingo","tag-shingo-akikuni","tag-stand","tag-travel-to-miami"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}