A brother-sister duo, originally from O‘ahu, have brought the taste of the Islands to the Big Apple, recently opening their third L&L Hawaiian Barbecue location in New York City.
Franchisees Henry and Sephra Engel already have locations in Manhattan's Lower East Side and East Harlem but opened their third restaurant in Brooklyn on March 20.
Born and raised in Honolulu, Henry Engel told Aloha State Daily that he's been in technology for his whole professional career — up until "taking a little twist here to the restaurant space."
Engel, who is chief revenue officer at Superorder, a restaurant technology company, says that's how he got into the restaurant world. Because of that, he became close with the L&L team "on a technology partnership side of things."
"And obviously, I had strong ties to back home. Grew up eating plate lunch and L&L all the time. Now I'm here in New York City with my sister. ... We were just wanting plate lunch. There's no opportunity to get that here, so we thought maybe we'd take a leap into that."
When asked why they decided on franchising with L&L, Engel lists his reasons.
"I'm a believer in being passionate about what you do, and I'm totally passionate about chicken katsu and loco mocos," he said with a laugh. "So No. 1 is just our level of familiarity with the food. It's our comfort foods that we grew up on."
No. 2, he says, was the opportunity to bring something like L&L to a city like New York, "where, for some reason, there's so many different types of food here, but not much of a presence for Hawaiian barbecue. We kind of saw that as an opportunity."
And No. 3, he says CEO Elisia Flores and the L&L team as a whole, are "fantastic, and they're a true representation of what it looks like to bring the Hawai‘i and aloha spirit culture into the restaurant business world."
There was a lot of hype around the opening of the siblings' first location, Engel says.
"It was highly anticipated," he said. "When we actually had our grand opening at our first store, I think someone started camping out there, waiting at 8 a.m. We don't open until 11 — and it was cold! I mean, it was like 40 degree-weather. So it was highly anticipated and it was pretty bonkers in the beginning in a good way. Every location since has been really exciting for us. The community, the different areas and online have just been really supportive and excited about it."
Henry and Sephra first moved to New York City together in 2018 and have been "in and out over the past few years."
He says he and his sister are "extremely close" and always dreamt of and wanted to start a business together.
"We're very complementary, where I'm very much the one that's flying this plane and she's the one figuring out how to build it as we're flying."
Sephra, he says, runs the back office and does a lot of their tech implementation, while Henry looks for the deals and the real estate, helps build the tech stack and focuses on marketing.
And possibly the most important question for the restauranteur:
Engel is quick to respond when he's asked what his favorite item is on L&L Hawaiian Barbecue menu.
"Oh, easily the loco moco." On a recent visit to the new location, he says, "I didn't even have to tell the team what I was ordering because it's like an inside joke now."
L&L as a company has ambitious plans for future growth.
Blythe Yamamoto, director of franchise sales for L&L, told Aloha State Daily that the company aims to hit 500 stores by 2032.
"We just want to spread more aloha around, share the Hawaiian culture — so that's our goal," she said.
In addition to the Engels' store in Brooklyn, L&L also recently announced the opening of a location in Smyrna, Georgia — its fifth in the Peach State — and one in Benicia, California, bringing the total number locations worldwide to 236.
Yamamoto says L&L's growth has been organic.
"We have not gone out and recruited anybody. They are usually friends or family of our franchisees. They are all long-time patrons of L&L. A lot of them grew up in Hawai‘i or California, and as they were growing up, L&L was part of their family. They would have dinners there, and as they got older, they decided, 'You know, I would love to share that with my community that [I'm] in now.' That's kind of what happens."
Yamamoto says she's working with someone who grew up in Hawai‘i but whose husband is from Georgia to open an L&L location in Mulberry, Georgia.
This year, though, Yamamoto says L&L is "trying a little harder" by going to franchise expos, for example.
"We're showing them what we are and ... hopefully find people in certain areas," she says. "We are handcuffed as far as where we're going to open, because we need to find somebody who's willing to open in that area because we do not have corporately owned stores. All those stores are franchised-owned, so it's finding that right person, finding that right place."
For example, Yamamoto says L&L was in Tennessee, but the franchisee decided to close. But there's another ready to move into that area.
"We're looking at Boise, [Idaho], which is going to be new for us. Indiana. So we are hitting new territories, but it is really tied to us finding that person who's interested in opening."
Aside from the Mainland, L&L has two locations in Japan.
The business started as L&L Dairy back in 1952. Eddie Flores Jr. and Johnson Kam acquired L&L in 1976 and turned into a plate lunch diner.
Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
