TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Hawaii restaurateurs
continue expansions
on the mainlandRoy's is looking to open as many as four new locations a year on the mainland. Founder Roy Yamaguchi said the Roy's-Outback Steakhouse joint venture is exploring resort, downtown and residential areas where the partnership feels it can grow. It currently has 31 locations.
"It all has to do with what makes sense for our future expansion," Yamaguchi said.
Both the west and east coasts have proven to be good markets for the high-end Pacific regional cuisine.
"It's a question of how to fill in those areas and move inland," he said. "There are different eating habits in different parts of the country, so you have to be smart about where you go."
Eddie Flores and Johnson Kam seem to have figured that out as well.
The partners' L&L Hawaiian Barbecue blitzkrieg takes the local favorite to Manchester, Conn., in April. Locations in New York and Florida may also be in the making.
The Flores and Kam plate lunch restaurant incubator will soon spawn eight new L&Ls, six in California alone -- specifically in Pico Rivera, Hayward, Vallejo, Van Nuys and Fullerton and at San Diego State University.
By summer Flores expects the 17 mainland restaurants to grow to 25, but says Hawaii is close to maxed-out.
Waikiki will get its first L&L in April. But here's the catch: It's going to be an L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, not L&L Drive-Inn, bearing the "mainland name" because it will be in a visitor destination familiar to West Coast visitors, who will find it at the Ohana Surf Hotel at 2289 Kuhio Ave.
The company could easily add 20 locations in Los Angeles, Flores figures. Then there's Northern and Eastern California. He and Kam also see potential in Arizona and Utah, spurred on by stories of people who travel hundreds of miles for L&L's most popular dish -- chicken katsu.
Sales at mainland franchises are 30 percent higher than in Hawaii. "There's less competition," Flores explained. Shopping centers are plentiful and leases are at $1.50 a square foot, half of what he pays in Hawaii. "For me, it's easy to do the math."
Flores was recently honored with a Hall of Fame award from Junior Achievement "I felt bad, because (Kam is) not included," he said of his partner. "Between you and me, he's the chairman of the board. He works harder than me."
Kam is likely to be on hand for the opening of the Connecticut location.
"Johnson will be there cooking, most likely," Flores said.
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