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TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

L&L makes
logical move

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From the "What took them so long?" department: L&L founders Eddie Flores and Johnson Kam are preparing for the July 11 opening of an L&L Hawaiian Barbecue restaurant in Las Vegas; Henderson, to be specific.

Located in the Whitney Ranch Center at 693 N. Stephanie St., the restaurant is about 16 miles from The Strip. More importantly it's in Henderson, populated by an estimated 80,000 Hawaii expatriates, Flores said.

The 2,500-square-foot Henderson restaurant is among the biggest in the burgeoning L&L chain in Hawaii and on the mainland, now numbering around 60, Flores said.

The Vegas Strip is not going to work, he said, because it's geared toward tourists who might just walk by. "I need repeat business. Once people eat our food they're going to come back," Flores said.

About half the mainland locations are near Starbucks Coffee shops. "We're not Starbucks yet, but we're closing in," Flores chuckled. He's scouting other locations in the Las Vegas area and has received interest from Guam as well.

At the California locations, the majority of the clientele are Mexican- and African-Americans, he said. Former Hawaii folks come on the weekends when they can make the journey of many miles.

Ex-pats and others needing a fix of the restaurant's top seller, barbecued chicken, may one day not have so far to drive.

"I think easily we'll have 100 (locations) in the mainland in five years," Flores said.

He and Kam plan expansion at the rate of 15 to 20 new restaurants a year; first in the West Coast states, then in Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

The East Coast, with its ethnic diversity, will be the next expansion area, as the Midwest is "still too mainstream," Flores said.

As the chain expands it has suffered one store loss -- its South Hotel Street location. "We have not failed," Flores said. "We lost the lease," apparently to make way for a new tenant.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com