We recently connected with Pedro Mederos and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pedro , thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
Our entire restaurant was a risk. Before my wife and I opened Kojin, we had operated a dim sum pop-up in South Miami. In June of 2021 we were offered the ability to launch a concept in the back of Hachidori Ramen in Little River. The space itself offered many challenges, but our main concern was convincing people to give us a chance at serving fine dining. Both my wife and I had many years of previous experience working in fine dining restaurants across the country, but we had built our name in Miami and our customer base around our dumplings. When we opened, we were concerned people would not come to try our food, due to us making such a jump from a casual dining experience to a more costly, and refined dining experience. Thankfully, those fears were completely squashed within the first few weeks of being opened. Many of our previous guests from our dumpling pop-up came in to see our new venture and they loved it! Many of them have come to dine with us multiple times since in the past year and we are eternally grateful for their continued support.
Pedro , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I fell in love with cooking in my late teens but never thought to make a career out of it. I then began working in sales and when I realized I didn’t like the 9 to 5, I began bartending and then went to a couple of cooking classes to better understand how to bring flavors together. That’s where it really started. I went to a small school in Coral Gables and from there into kitchens all over the country. I wanted to make sure that people knew I was serious about cooking and being a Chef, so I applied to the Culinary Institute of America at GreyStone. I got in and went through the program. I then spent sometime in Napa and Sonoma Valley. That’s when I started at SingleThread Farms and Inn.
At SingleThread, I began to really wrap my head around Japanese cuisine. At the end of 2019, I decided to move back home to Miami, FL. I started working at Alter in Wynwood. This was January 3rd, 2020. March of 2020 came around and well, you know what happened the world stopped. Alter Q was the way to ensure that the staff could continue to work and earn a living as well as feeding our community. All good things unfortunately do come to an end and when Alter Q closed, I was out of a steady job. I then partnered up with another Alter alum and we opened E+P DMPLNGS in December of 2020. E+P DMPLNGS was my first outing as a Chef/Owner, it was a great lesson in what it takes not only to put out great food but also run a business. In March of 2021, E+P DMPLNGS pop up was up. That is when the planning began for our next endeavor. My wife Katherine Mederos and I met with Hachidori Ramen Owner Guillermo Paniza and he offered us the Sake Bar Space behind his Ramen Shop. We opened June 22nd of 2021 and it’s been amazing to make food from beginning to end in a 500 sq ft space with guests sitting at our counter. We took a small break for our wedding and honeymoon in October of 2021 and reopened November of 2021. We hired a Sous Chef as we have increased the amount of course for our Chef’s tasting menu. In June of this year, we were honored to have been included in the first edition of the Michelin Guide for Florida.
It’s been a relatively smooth road however not without its hairpin turns, Covid is the obvious answer, but the main challenge is how we serve a nine course tasting menu with two induction burners, a countertop oven and one Joule Sous Vide. That has been the thing that we remind ourselves daily of that with next to no equipment, we are still somehow able to put out a great dining experience for our guests.
Kojin is our second concept from our Hospitality Group, East Wind Hospitality. The Team is comprised of my wife Katherine and I and we have to wear many hats. If I’m honest, she definitely wears more hats than I do.
What I want your readers to know is that there is no other dining experience like our in Miami, and we don’t like to dive into too much detail because we want them to come and experience it for themselves.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
For us, we rely heavily on word of mouth. We have been open for a little over a year now, and our social media platform is our only source of marketing. That aside, most of our guests come in based on recommendations from their friends.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I love to tell this story! The short version of this story is that I stole her car. My business partner is my wife. We met while we were in culinary school in California. One night after I got out of class, I saw her in the common area of our dorm rooms. At this point we had only spoken to each other on occurrence but were not close at all, we simply had a mutual friend in common. Either way, it was close to 1 am and I was exhausted from class and starving. I saw her sitting there working on an essay and went up to her. I mentioned how I was starving and wanted Taco Bell. She basically told me to leave her alone. So I did what anyone would do when they’re trying to flirt, I grabbed her car keys that were on the table and started walking to the parking lot. All I hear behind me is her yelling to come back and that I am not taking her car. I kept walking, and soon enough she was running up beside me huffing about how I am not getting in her car. At this point, I am unlocking the car and I look at her and say “I am getting Taco Bell. You coming?” and miraculously she said yes and got in! That night we got Taco Bell, and I got one heck of a story. It was another couple of weeks before we started dating, but here we are a handful of years later, married, and expecting our first child.
Contact Info:
- Website: kojinmiami.com
- Instagram: Kojin_Miami
Image Credits
Pedro Mederos Katherine Mederos