14 February 8-14, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | News | letters | coNteNts | Miami prides itself on being flashy so it’s no surprise that the menus at the city’s high-end Japanese restaurants often include glitzy accents - think caviar, gold leaf, and torched bone marrow. Álvaro Perez Miranda is bucking that trend, though, focusing not only on serving authentic cuisine at his four restaurants but also on representing Japa- nese culture as a whole. Clearly, he has succeeded. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries named him a Goodwill Ambassador for Japanese Cuisine. A mere 187 people hold this honor worldwide, only 21 of those are in North America, and Perez Miranda is the first Latino in the US. Perez Miranda took a unique path to get here. Born into a modest family in Venezuela, he left home to study art - first in Italy, then Los Angeles. He began working in the restaurant industry to pay the bills and as he rose through the ranks he landed an op- portunity to open Italian restaurants in Tokyo. Over the course of nearly a decade, he would go on to build a 33-restaurant empire in the Land of the Rising Sun. Eventually yearning to reconnect with his Latin American roots, Perez Miranda made his way to Miami, where he first opened a restaurant in the emblematic Vagabond Hotel. Upon the suggestion of his teenage son, he decided to pivot to Japanese cuisine with his next venue, Wabi Sabi, which opened in 2018. Now his Miami portfolio includes the fast-casual Midorie, the high-end Hiyakawa, and the new omakase restaurant Ogawa, which debuted in late 2023. No matter which of these restau- rants they’re visiting, diners are immersed in three Japanese principles: ometenashi (selfless hospitality and anticipation of guest needs), komakai (attention to detail), and sensai (delicate balance of flavors). Perez Miranda is very much aware of the weight his ambassadorship carries. “It is a great honor to have my restaurants recognized by the Japanese government,” he says. “The goal has always been to edu- cate not just the U.S. but South America, as well, on the nuances of Japanese cuisine and culture - to transport the diner, as if they were in Japan, keeping it as authentic as possible.” ADVERTORIAL TRADITION OVER TREND How Álvaro Perez Miranda Became the First Latino Goodwill Ambassador for Japanese Cuisine Álvaro Perez Miranda miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Building Blocks Dombresky swings from the rafters with his new EP, Sound of the Drums. BY GRANT ALBERT M ontpellier native Dombresky couldn’t tell you where or when the French got their groove. Maybe Daft Punk laid out the blueprint for future producers. Perhaps colonialism usurped the sound from faraway lands. “This is the golden question,” Dombresky (AKA Quentin Dombres) tells New Times. I never have the perfect answer.” Nebulous origins aside, one thing French electronic producers have been able to make uniquely their own is the funk-induced touch that is inherently within their veins, from Daft Punk to Justice to Bob Sinclair. The groove is precisely why Dombresky and his suave and luscious house music repeatedly find their way to Miami. His next appearance is set for Friday, February 9, at Club Space. “What more can I say? It’s one of the best clubs, and you can play anything and go deep,” Dombres says from his home in Los Angeles. Dombres al- ludes to a funk- thrilled, beatific house set that can keep the crowd going well past sunrise. Dombres began his career in the late 2000s. Like many of his DJing forefathers, he started spinning hip-hop around local clubs while studying at university. He simply asked the venues’ management if he could spin one night when they weren’t pro- gramming electronic music. “I was ending the night at 6 a.m. and didn’t have time for school, so I just gave up the school,” he adds. Eventually, he transitioned from spinning hip-hop to dropping house tracks. The switch may seem arbitrary, but Dombres described the connection between the two sounds. He was there at the right time when electronic music was becoming the new flavor and hip-hop waned in France. He took to it and went with the genre’s signature four-on-the-floor beat. “There’s a connection. I always think about Arman Van Helen’s ‘You Don’t Know Me,’” he explains. “It’s the perfect mix between soulful house and R&B. I started with scratching on vinyl, and then I always loved house culture with Daft Punk and Sinclair and all those guys. The disco-house scene was pretty inter- esting, and one day, it was like, ‘Bye-bye hip- hop; I’m going to be a house DJ.’” Dombres moved to Miami for six months in 2016 with hopes of becoming a full-time DJ. However, the city proved too challenging to get a foot in the door, so he decamped to Los Angeles, where he miraculously found earning a living as a DJ easier. Dombres honed in on his production, releasing his de- but EP, Reaching Perfection, in 2016 via Fool’s Gold. Soon after the release of his track “Soul Sacrifice” in 2019, he caught the ear of Cali- fornia event promoter Insomniac. “Being a DJ isn’t enough,” says Dombres. “In 2015, I started to learn how to produce. I had been a drummer for a long time, so I had some references, and I was friends with peo- ple like DJ Snake. We were renting studios in Paris, and they taught me.” Dombres continues to be a steadfast pro- ducer. His latest EP, Sound of the Drums, was produced in collaboration with English duo Jaded and is slated for release on February 1 via Diplo’s Higher Ground label. Jaded and Dombresky have teased listen- ers with the single “All for You.” The track never keeps its foot off the accelerator or puts the roof up as Dombres adds the elusive French touch via plucking bass and orches- tral strings prominently used in disco songs. “We’ve been friends for a long time, and we just decided to make music together,” Dombres says. “We started with ‘All for You’ and thought we should turn it into an EP. We then sent it to Higher Ground.” Dombres has also recently adopted a new alias, Disco Dom, allowing him to drop disco classics while building up the energy with contemporary disco-house tracks. He brought his disco-flavored moniker to Floyd last year and hopes to bring the side project to other cities. “It started as an unserious proj- ect, but people loved it,” he explains. “I loved it and decided to push music under the name and do a small tour.” For 2024, Dombres teases a slew of re- leases — almost one a month — while con- tinuing to spin in clubs around the globe. It’s hard to believe that the producer stepped on U.S. soil only eight years ago with a USB stick and a dream. “I feel like time is going faster and faster,” he says. “That’s why we have to celebrate. Coming to America with $700 in my account to today — I am grateful. So many shows. Just so many shows.” Dombresky. With Todd Terry and Ferreck Dawn. 11 p.m. Friday, February 9, at Club Space, 34 NE 11th St., Miami; 786-357-6456; clubspace. com. Tickets cost $27 to $40 via dice.fm. [email protected] ▼ Music French producer Dombresky returns to Miami to spin at Club Space on Friday, February 9. Photo by Camb Lyles “I FEEL LIKE TIME IS GOING FASTER AND FASTER. THAT’S WHY WE HAVE TO CELEBRATE.”