Michelin Bib Gourmand Ecuadorian Spot Cotoa Opens Larger North Miami Home
Cotoa, chef Alejandra Espinoza's Michelin Bib Gourmand Ecuadorian restaurant, has moved into a larger North Miami space at 1111 NE 125th Street with 60 dining seats, a bar and a private room.
NORTH MIAMI — A Michelin-recognized Ecuadorian kitchen that started in a tiny downtown food hall now has the room to tell a longer story — and a larger dining room to fill.
Cotoa, from Ecuadoran-born, France-trained chef Alejandra Espinoza, has opened a new larger location in North Miami at 1111 NE 125th St., Suite 200. Coverage by the Miami Herald’s Connie Ogle on Nov. 6 followed an opening around Oct. 22, according to Timeout and Hoodline reporting. The path is familiar to Miami diners who watched the concept grow: a small downtown food-hall start, a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a North Miami space in 2025, and now an even larger nearby address.
More Seats, a Private Room and Room to Cook
The new restaurant seats 60 in the main dining room, plus 10 at the bar and an eight-seat private dining room. That footprint matters for a kitchen that built its reputation on focused Ecuadorian cooking and now has a larger line to expand the menu.
Espinoza has said the goal is to show Ecuadorian culture through both cuisine and atmosphere. A mural by Ecuadorian artist Apitatán anchors the room; the same artist also has a mural at Espinoza’s restaurant Somos in Quito. The visual cue is intentional: guests are meant to feel the country as well as taste it.
“The first Cotoa gave us the opportunity to introduce people to Ecuador and show how much depth, history and diversity there is within our cuisine,” Espinoza said. “This new space gives us room to tell more of that story and give guests even more ways to experience the food and culture of my country.” She described Miami’s response to the first restaurant as “incredibly special.”
Menu and Bar Expand With the Kitchen
With more kitchen capacity, the menu is growing around snacks, ceviche, crudo and empanadas, alongside entrees such as banana leaf-roasted fish, sweet plantain and cheese tortellini with chicken stew, and grilled prawns with coconut rice. The kitchen draws on Ecuadorian ingredients and South Florida products — a sourcing mix that keeps the pantry tied to both home and the local market.
The beverage program is expanding under bartender James MacInnes, founder of Stormy Monday and known for work tied to Kyu, Kaori, Klaw and Shiso. Pairing a chef-driven Ecuadorian menu with a bartender who has worked some of Miami’s higher-profile rooms is a signal that Cotoa wants the drink list to match the ambition of the larger space.
Hours and How to Book
Dinner runs 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday through Thursday, and 5:30 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Lunch is served 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Reservations are available at www.cotoa.rest or by calling 786-328-1460.
The schedule — closed for dinner Monday and Tuesday on the hours listed, with weekend lunch — fits a neighborhood fine-casual model: destination dinners midweek and Friday-Saturday late seatings, plus weekend daytime traffic that a food-hall counter could never capture at the same scale.
From Food Hall to Bib Gourmand to a Bigger Bet
Cotoa’s arc is a business story as much as a culinary one. Starting small kept rent and labor light while Espinoza proved demand for Ecuadorian cooking beyond a novelty plate. The Michelin Bib Gourmand validated that demand for a wider audience. The 2025 North Miami move took the concept out of the food hall. The 2026 larger location nearby is the scaling step: more covers, a private room for groups, a dedicated bar program and a kitchen sized for a broader menu.
That progression matters in a city where many chef-driven concepts either stay tiny or jump straight into expensive, high-rent rooms. Cotoa’s intermediate path — earn the recognition, then add seats — is closer to how durable neighborhood restaurants grow than how hotel dining rooms launch.
Why It Matters for Miami
Miami’s restaurant economy still over-indexes on a handful of global cuisines and big-name imports. An Ecuadorian kitchen that earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand and then invested in a larger North Miami footprint widens what “destination dining” looks like north of downtown. For North Miami and the NE 125th Street corridor, a 78-seat operation with lunch and dinner service is also foot traffic, hiring and a reason for diners to plan a trip that is not Brickell or South Beach.
For local suppliers, Espinoza’s mix of Ecuadorian and South Florida products is a tangible purchase order. For hospitality workers, MacInnes’s expanded beverage program and a private dining room create more specialized roles than a food-hall stall ever could. And for other immigrant chefs watching from smaller kitchens, Cotoa’s path offers a concrete template: prove the food, collect the recognition, then lease the room that matches the demand.
The risk is the usual one that comes with a bigger footprint. More seats mean more nights that must fill. A larger menu and bar program raise labor and inventory needs. If Espinoza can convert the goodwill from the first Cotoa into steady reservations at 1111 NE 125th St., North Miami gains a flagship Ecuadorian address with Michelin credentials and room to grow. The phone number and the reservation link are live; the next chapter is covers.