Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Wiele and Xochilt Perez.
Cos&Pi is a husband and wife owned and operated small business restaurant that opened its doors on March 29th, 2017. Before opening Cos&Pi, Pastry Chef/Owner, Xochilt Perez and Chef/Owner, Casey Wiele, met while working for their previous employer, the Patina Restaurant Group. Fresh out of culinary school, Xochilt was hired by Patina Pastry where she had the opportunity to work under many great French, Mexican and American Pastry Chefs, developing and honing her love for and skills in this profession. She eventually worked her way up to Chef of Patina Pastry, continuing to develop her skills and knowledge to eventually open a restaurant of her own.
As a means to pay for college, Casey got a job with Patina Catering in the year 2000. After graduating from Cal. State L.A., with a bachelor’s degree in social science, his passion for cooking had taken ahold and led him to continue a career with the Patina Restaurant Group to further develop his culinary skills and knowledge. Casey eventually worked his way up to Executive Chef, with the Patina Restaurant Group, and eventually ran such accounts as Patina Catering, L.A.C.M.A., Descanso Gardens, and most recently the Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
After a long and successful career working for the Patina Restaurant Group, we felt the need to get back to the basics and open a restaurant of our own, focusing on fresh, local, organic, made to order breakfast/brunch, where everything is made in house, fresh daily, delicious, visually appealing and served with a smile.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Although it has not always been a smooth road, we are grateful to have traveled down it and continue to travel down it, together. The restaurant industry is a cut-throat industry that in a moments notice can chew you up and spit you out with no remorse. From rising costs of goods, rising labor costs, taxes and fees for everything you do, and the fact that everyone considers themselves a food critic nowadays, it’s definitely a tough business to navigate through and succeed in. We are extremely fortunate for all the skills and knowledge we absorbed from past employment opportunities and life experiences that have been extremely important and critical for the success and continued success of Cos&Pi.
Working in the food industry is notorious for consuming all of one’s time and energy, leaving little personal time or downtime to enjoy the many beauties life has to offer. Thankfully now, working together as a husband and wife team allows us plenty of time to see each other while being able to coordinate time to take care of our family as well.
Cos&Pi – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
It is very hard to find good food nowadays. Everyone thinks that they are chefs and believe that they can open a restaurant with little to no experience and have it succeed. It’s now common for investors to put boatloads of money into the decoration, visuals and ambiance of a new restaurant, but the food coming out of the kitchen doesn’t match. It’s no good. Unfortunately, this is all to common in the restaurant industry nowadays. You can have the most beautiful restaurant in the world, but if the food is no good, it will not be successful.
We opened up Cos&Pi with the vision and idea of “Food and People First”. It’s all about the food and customer service. We are a neighborhood eatery located in South Pasadena that focuses on breakfast and brunch “done right”. We make everything in-house, use proper cooking and seasoning techniques, to provide consistently great and visually appealing products to our customers. At Cos&Pi, we are not looking to reinvent the wheel, just make the perfectly good wheel the best it can be. We believe in cooking done right, with no short cuts, sub par ingredients or store bought items.
As a company, we are most proud of being able to open a business on our own, without investors, and name it after our two sons, Cosmo and Pirate. Everyday we come to work, everything we do will have their names on it, which has and will always continue to make us pursue greatness and perfection, giving Cosmo and Pirate a restaurant to be proud of as well.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
We are extremely grateful to have made it this far on our journey of opening our own restaurant that has become a food destination of its own. Our proudest moment of our careers so far has to be just that. Being able to open our own small business restaurant and being able to name it for our two sons. Family is very important to us, and we know all the hard work and endless hours are worth it, for Cosmo and Pirate mean the world to us. We will continue to strive for perfection and run our business with the “Mamba Mentality” for success and greatness and settle for nothing less.
Pricing:
- House Made Pastries – $4+
- Toasts – $3-$12
- Breakfast/Brunch – $4-$14
- Brunch/Lunch – $4-$16
- Beer & Wine – $4-$20
Contact Info:
- Address: 303 Pasadena Avenue, South Pasadena, CA 91030
- Website: www.cosandpi.com
- Phone: 626-460-6030
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @cosandpi
- Facebook: cosandpi
- Twitter: @cosandpi
- Yelp: Cos&Pi
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