Sunday Dreamin is a Restaurant Cafe founded by two Asian American childhood friends — Maurice and Sonny. We wanted to share our experiences and the food we ate growing up with the rest of the City. We are both New York City born and raised and oddly, we have always enjoyed the same types of cuisine — much of which was American, Asian, and Latin American.
Born in Mexico — Executive Chef Juan — came to the United States and started working in restaurants as a dish washer. Chef Juan then advanced to Line Cook and he quickly realized that he had to pursue his natural talent. Now with over 20 years of cooking experience Juan has worked in many restaurants all over the City — including Delmonico’s, American Cut, Enoteca, Sai Gon Dep and Empellon.
Before we opened SD, the two of us spent over a decade in the coffee industry. We worked for a huge chain and then we opened our own coffee shops. We learned a lot and enjoyed what we did — but there was still a desire to be able to provide more than just a cup of coffee and a pastry and thus, the idea of Sunday Dreamin was born.
I (Sonny) first met Juan when I briefly worked at Sai Gon Dep — and what stood out most to me was Juan's versatility as a chef. Vietnamese, American, Mexican, Italian - he has done it all — and here at Sunday Dreamin’ he has taken all that he has accumulated over the years and put it into our menu by using American Cuisine as the foundation and modernizing dishes by incorporating his experience with Latin and Asian flavors. Cuisines that we became familiar with growing up in New York City as two young boys.
To us, the real joy in starting a restaurant is being able to provide a place for people to convene, catch up and perhaps even find love — a 3rd gathering place for all intents and purposes. We hope you will come along for the ride — and we have every intention of leaving things better than when we found them.
see you soon,
- Sonny, Maurice & Juan
