ALOH-O was founded in 2018 by Yunkun Zhang, (hereafter referred to as Jerry) which has additional locations in Petaluma, Novato and San Rafael. Steve first met Jerry in 2015 and sold him a restaurant including the building at 333 Enfrente in Novato which he converted into a successful Japanese restaurant.
ALOH-O is an American-Japanese fast-food restaurant and was created by Chef Jerry. Jerry’s experience includes more than 20 years’ worth of experience from authentic Japanese cooking to create this new generation fast-food restaurant.
Jerry’s goal in creating ALOH-O is to break the stereotype of fast food with food infused with traditional Japanese dietary culture and modern healthy cooking concepts.
ALOH-O specializes in Poke, Bento Box and Sushi. Poke is a raw fish salad served as an appetizer in Hawaiian cuisine, and sometimes as a main course. Poke bowls are all about four things: a great base, fresh fish (or a vegetable substitute), sauce and toppings. Hawaiian poke and Japanese sushi are vastly different, however there are a lot of similarities including the freshness of the fish, the way customers prepare the marinades, and the quality of ingredients. ALOH-O takes qualities from traditional Chirashi sushi and combine it with classic Hawaiian flavors and roll it into ALOH-O Poke.
The buyer of both businesses is Kelvin Chen who has been working in the food service industry for over 15 years. Kelvin established several businesses from the ground up including Baby Café in Oakland which sells Asian influence beverages and unique snack products and Lightning Star Delivery in Chicago, Illinois which was a food delivery service. Kelvin will continue running the Mill Valley and Santa Rosa stores as ALOH-O Poke and Sushi.
We wish Jerry continued success in his remaining ALOH-O operations and wish Kelvin much success in his two new businesses.
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