Hawaiian Restaurant Sizzles on the Mainland

L&L, a plate-lunch restaurant that was founded in Hawaii in 1976,  has by popular request expanded to and grown rapidly in recent years on the Mainland (the 48 states). Still headquartered in Hawaii, the L&L franchise now has 165 restaurants, most of them outside of its home state. Eddie Flores Jr., CEO, founded the locally popular and well-known L&L Drive-Inn along with Kwock Yum "Johnson" Kam. At the time, the extent of his ambitions was 30 restaurants.

The first L&L outside of Hawaii opened in 2000, and, with the vastly larger Mainland horizons, the number of restaurants has exploded. Flores’ new goal is 1,000 L&Ls, called L&L Hawaiian Barbecue outside of Hawaii.

California now has more L&L restaurants than Hawaii does, and, at the present rate of growth, Flores expects that the West Coast will have the optimal number of L&Ls in two years.

Former Hawaii residents, many of whom have moved to the Mainland because of Hawaii’s low wages and sky-high cost of living, not to mention limited opportunities, can now get their “ono kaukau” (delicious food) fix in many areas of the Mainland instead of pining away until their next trip home.

Photo of NY L&L Barbecue by newyork808
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