When you think of where to find the best Mexican food, you may not think of New York City. However, Santiago Perez and his business partner sought to change that. Since launching Cosme in 2014, Santiago has created multiple modern havens of some of the finest Mexican food and culinary experiences to have ever arrived in New York City.

Founder, Santiago Perez was always involved in hospitality one way or another since his younger days. In middle school, he started multiple tacos stands a year and sold tacos to his friends, which then carried over into him throwing eventful high school parties, and thus quickly learned that bringing people together really brought him joy and could be a full-time job. Although he studied chemical and industrial engineering in college and worked as a banker, he realized his true passion was culinary arts specific to his Mexican heritage.

The Aha Moment

Born and raised in Mexico City with four siblings, Santiago grew up hosting a plethora of events for many friends, family members, etc., at least multiple times a week. Hospitality is second nature to him and what really started the company was his “passion for hospitality and making other people happy.” The Aha moment of Cosme came to him when he was in New York City with some friends at a famous Italian restaurant downtown, post a karaoke party. After a couple of drinks, Santiago started chatting with the waitstaff and bartenders, and they all said the same thing -- there was no good, authentic Mexican food that was also fused with modern elements. Santiago went home and furiously researched, noticing there was indeed a gap in the market for real, authentic Mexican food that could be categorized as upscale.

“I saw many different elements of my Mexican heritage heavily misrepresented in the U.S., primarily in culinary, interior design, and hospitality. By putting all these different elements under one roof, Cosme was born.” - Santiago

Having grown up in Mexico City and having seen quality there for a smaller price point, Santiago knew this was a hurdle he had to overcome in order to build a reputable brand in New York City. He knew he couldn’t do this alone so he started thinking about famous chefs from his home country, and renowned Mexican chef Enrique Olvera came to mind. Enrique is considered a top chef in Mexico and partnering with him would be a dream come true, although Santiago knew it would be difficult to connect, he never gave up. Santiago showed up to Enrique’s flagship restaurant in Mexico City with a full presentation deck with even his face on the cover to hold his attention and developed rapport within a few meetings and a few bottles of mezcal.

“We shared the same vision and got along really well, so over time we realized we wanted to work together.”

After securing real estate space, the team stayed laser-focused on their vision and mission of bringing elevated Mexican cuisine to the public. When asked about marketing campaigns or investing in PR, Santiago said, “We believe the best marketing that we can do is word of mouth. If you focus on yourself, you perform better. So, focusing on our product and making sure we can execute at the highest quality will do the marketing itself. That is what we believe is more powerful than any alliance or influencer or celebrity.” However, Santiago also recalled that validation from one of the biggest celebrities from our time helped him confirm that bringing his vision to the U.S. was a real success. A few years ago, Barack and Michelle Obama and their team wanted to dine at his restaurant and insisted on dining at Cosme. Santiago and his team remembered making exceptions in the private dining room for the former President and First Lady, and ensured that they were well taken care of...as he does for all of his guests who dine at his restaurants.

“We believe in sharing our Mexican identity with pride. In order to do this, we cannot compromise on our values. We are always pushing for what is authentic and what represents our Mexican culture best.”

Ever since Cosme was born, Santiago and Enrique have slowly grown the brand by adding new restaurants and working most recently in the consumer products goods category to launch their own line of salsas. The team also owns the famous restaurant, Atla in trendy Noho, and in LA, they recently opened Damien which is a sibling to Cosme, and plan to build three more Atla’s in LA. Wohoo!

The Challenges

Cosme was born in 2012 and did not officially open its doors until 2014, but faced many obstacles and challenges along the way, specific to real estate. Santiago remembered trying to find a very large space with a kitchen and no landlord would take them. The team finally found something, but low and behold it was a crumbling, old strip club space. A big hurdle of this was that there were still remnants of the previous tenant scattered in the space and the kitchen had no gas. Ultimately it was sticking with their vision and creating something that we would be really proud of, that we knew wouldn’t exist anywhere outside of Mexico. The team all jumped in to make sure with the time and budget they had, they could translate their vision into reality, and really make the space their own with a sleek design and a lot of lighting and vegetation.

Fast forward to the present day, COVID has presented its own unique set of challenges for any restaurant owner. As places shuttered, the team figured out how to shift their resources and energy to really reassess their long-term goals. “Our idea for consumer packaged goods came to life -- it is still in the early stages, and we don’t have the product yet, but we took time to really understand how fragile restaurants are in external environments, and in order to scale, we have to build new stores and products to get a much broader audience. COVID really enabled us to think outside of the box and outside of the four walls of the restaurant and outside of just the restaurant brand.”

The Advice

Launching any business, especially a restaurant, takes a lot of effort and time, but most importantly, it takes a strong commitment to a clear vision. Santiago shares some of his learnings as a founder in the competitive hospitality industry:

“In the early stage, you need to have a lot of conviction of what you want to do because especially in the early stage there will be so many nos, people that challenge your vision, thoughts about more capital, and you really need to convince yourself you can push forward with your idea. Take care of yourself, or else it will be very difficult to show up and tackle your idea.”
“You should have a very clear vision of how your idea will be different from others. Surround yourself with positive people who say yes instead of no. Have the right people around you.”Don’t underestimate the work that you’re going to need to put into it. Don’t underestimate the energy and time of what you need to invest in your idea. Also, don’t get too many partners involved -- everyone has opinions about the customers. Keep it as tight as possible, and stick to partners who share your vision.”
“Draft a vision that you have for your business, write it down, frame it, and hang it in the office. Often as times change, and as you get busy with all the operations, you can lose your vision, so it’s always good to have the reminder in front of you.”

If you are in New York and feeling hungry, definitely stop by Cosme, or Atla to experience authentic Mexican food with a modern twist.

Photo courtesy of Cosme.

Written by Christina Chao.