Japanese restaurant operator Toridoll Holdings Corporation, based in Kobe, is investing in Pokéworks, a popular U.S. poke chain restaurant headquartered in Irvine, California.
Toridoll Holdings already has several restaurant brands including Marugame Udon, Toridoll Yakitori, Crackin’ Kitchen, Tokyo Table, Wok to Walk, Yunnan Noodle, Shoryu and Boat Noodle. In the three decades since its founding as an udon restaurant, it has grown into a group of companies that operates around 1,000 restaurants in 27 countries and regions around the world.
Pokéworks, which opened its first shop in New York City in 2015, now operates 21 locations in nine states and in Canada. With the tie-up, Pokéworks projects growth of franchises to over 400 locations, while Toridoll Holdings is pursuing a goal of 6,000 restaurants worldwide.
Poke is a traditional Hawaiian food, but in recent years, Los Angeles-style (also known as mainland-style) poke has become widespread, with a variety of toppings and different forms such as rice bowls, salads, and wraps. Poke is the fastest-growing type of chain restaurant in the U.S.A., with an annual growth rate of 25 percent. As it is based on raw fish, the initial investment is fairly low for franchisees, as gas equipment like stoves and fryers are not needed.
The seafood used at Pokéworks includes ahi tuna, albacore tuna, salmon, shrimp, and scallops. Non-seafood proteins are chicken and tofu. The company avoids billing itself as Los Angeles- or mainland-style, as Sheldon Simeon, the executive chef and owner of Maui's Tin Roof in Hawaii, helped design the chain's menu. The company uses the phrase “Poke Your Way” to describe its expanded options for ingredients and forms.
Pokéworks has plenty of competition in the segment, including Los Angeles-based Poké Bar, with over 50 units; Aloha Poke Co., based in Chicago, with 13 units; Poke Bros., of Columbus, Ohio, with 13 units; Santa Monica, California-based Sweetfin with eight units; and Portland, Oregon’s Quickfish, with two units. A shakeout of the segment appears likely, creating a race to quickly establish dominance and name recognition in major markets.
Shunsuke Fukabori of Toridoll's PR department said the company has no definite plan yet for Pokéworks to enter the Japanese market.
So far in Japan, Poke restaurants are mainly confined to the Tokyo area, where foreign tourists already familiar with the dish make up a significant part of their clientele, and where more urbane residents enjoy following new trends.
Teppei Uchida is the owner and chef at California Poke Company in Chigasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Chigasaki is a beach town near Kamakura, a popular resort for Tokyo residents. He opened his shop two years ago after working as a sushi chef in California for 13 years.
He said that the poke trend has not taken off yet in Japan outside of the tourist areas of Tokyo. Business is just OK, he said.
“It’s my hometown, and it has a beach, so I opened the shop here, but it’s a local area. I’m considering opening another shop in Tokyo,” he said.
He said that Japanese are more familiar with the Hawaiian style of poke than the California style, as Hawaii is a popular vacation spot for Japanese.
His menu features an ahi tuna bowl in three sizes at JPY 700, 850, or 1050 (USD 6.25, 7.59, 9.38; EUR 6.25, 7.59, 8.05) for a small, medium or large, respectively; a “create-your-own” poke bowl and sushi rolls. Some recommended combinations are octopus, natto (fermented soybeans), kimchee, and egg; fish and cilantro; and quinoa, crab, and avocado.
In the Tokyo metro area, there is the similarly-named Californian Poke, which in addition to poke, offers appetizers of chili and nachos or fries; and Poke’s fish market, opened this summer. Featuring Hawaiian rather than California-style poke are Ogo Ono-loa Hawaii; Egg’n Things Harajuku, Hawaiian Restaurant Laule’a, Okay Poke, and Tsunami in Ebisu.
