STAND: A New Japanese Café From the Team Behind SHINGO

Miami’s most celebrated omakase restaurant just made way to a more accessible sibling. The team behind Michelin-starred SHINGO has opened STAND, a Japanese café on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, on Thursday, June 4, and shaped up to be one of the city’s most anticipated daytime openings of the year.

Photo Credit: Salar Abduaziz

From Hushed Omakase to Everyday Café

SHINGO, helmed by Chef Shingo Akikuni, built its reputation on intimacy and restraint. The 14-seat counter, constructed and hand-assembled by Kyoto woodworkers before being shipped to Coral Gables, became one of Miami’s first restaurants to earn a Michelin star, known for its 18-course tasting menu and an atmosphere so quiet that guests are gently encouraged to keep their voices down.

Photo Credit: Salar Abduaziz

STAND is the opposite instinct from the same creative team. Akikuni and his partner Kenzie Motai, the duo behind SHINGO, designed the 24-seat café to feel like part of someone’s daily routine rather than a special occasion. Where SHINGO asks for reservations made weeks in advance, STAND is built for the walk-in, the quick coffee run, the lingering afternoon spent at the counter.

For Motai, the project is rooted in memory rather than ambition. He has described STAND as inspired by the cafés he and Akikuni grew up visiting in Tokyo, spaces he called quiet and intentional, where everything from the coffee to the food to the atmosphere felt considered. Opening a café built around that feeling, he said, is something of a full-circle moment for the pair.

Photo Credit: Salar Abduaziz

What’s on the Menu

STAND draws its identity from Japanese kissaten culture and convenience store snack staples, reimagined with the same technical care that earned SHINGO its star. The menu centers on house-baked milk bread, prepared fresh daily by chef de cuisine Lania Andrade, who previously served as SHINGO’s pastry chef. That bread becomes the base for several of the café’s signature items, including a Japanese-style egg salad sando and a chicken katsu sandwich layered with kewpie mayo and tonkatsu sauce.

Beyond the sandos, expect buttery shio pan, matcha, specialty coffee, pastries, and bento boxes, alongside thick-cut toasts topped with combinations like cheesy miso caramel, jammy eggs, sweet potato, honey, and roasted tomatoes. It is the kind of menu built for repeat visits rather than once-a-year indulgence, exactly the point Motai and Akikuni set out to make.

Photo Credit: Salar Abduaziz

A Space Designed for Stillness

The interior, designed by Love Lake Studio, leans into the same minimalist sensibility that defines SHINGO, just translated into a more casual register. Natural light, handcrafted materials, and an L-shaped counter anchor the room, while shelves lined with Japanese ceramics and greenery soften the space. A small kitchen window lets guests watch the bread and pastries being made throughout the day, turning the prep work itself into part of the experience.

A Second Act Coming This Fall

STAND isn’t planning to stay a daytime-only concept for long. Later this year, the café will transition into an evening izakaya, swapping the bright, airy daytime atmosphere for something dimmer and more intimate. Expect seasonal Japanese small plates, sake, wine, and beer, served in a room that shifts its entire mood after dark while holding onto its minimalist bones.

Sound is a major part of that evening transformation. The nighttime concept will lean heavily into music and audio design, powered by high-end Lipinski L707 speakers intended to create an immersive listening environment inside the compact space, a detail that signals just how much intention is going into even the parts of STAND most guests won’t consciously notice.

Photo Credit: Salar Abduaziz

STAND opens Thursday, June 4, at 98 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables. The café will operate during the day to start, with the izakaya service launching later this fall. Given the pedigree behind it and the appetite Miami has already shown for SHINGO, lines at the counter in the opening weeks would not be a surprise.