Shin Takagi is the owner and cook at DokoDemo. He was born in Nagano, Japan and came to the U.S. to attend university. After graduation he spent seven years working as an investment banker in Tokyo and New York. He quit his job in 2013 to pursue his dream of a being a restaurateur in NYC. He spent the next three years traveling around Japan learning more about each regions’ street food and culinary traditions. He worked at various teppanyaki restaurants for no pay to gain as much experience as possible. He returned to New York City in January 2017, holed himself up in his apartment for six months, and worked on original recipes in his tiny kitchen seven days a week. He would sometimes go for weeks at a time without talking to anyone, just cooking all day everyday. He describes this time before opening DokoDemo as “the most uncertain period in my entire life.” He brings a fusion of different regions of Japanese street food and wants to spread its culture throughout New York City.