April was a record month for L&L Hawaiian Barbecue — the Hawai‘i-based restaurant chain saw six new franchises open last month alone.
"It has been a very exciting start to the year," CEO Elisia Flores told Aloha State Daily.
As of Thursday, the chain has opened 13 new locations in eight states this year, she says, "and that's a pretty significant number for us."
"The fact that we did six in one month, we've never done anything like that before, so it's very exciting times."
L&L, which now has more than 235 locations worldwide, recently opened in Ala Moana Center and reopened a fully remodeled location on Sand Island in Honolulu last month.
New locations also opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Duluth, Georgia; Long Beach, California; and Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, a recent announcement noted.
But Flores says she hopes — and expects — that L&L will open 25 locations in 2026, which would be a record year for the company in terms of new store openings.
"So far we're [at] 13, so we're running at a good clip. I'm super excited," she says. "It is also kind of a challenging time for restaurants from an economic standpoint and from just a macro standpoint. There's a lot of things going on in the world, so it is a tough time for restaurants, but that's also why I feel really great that we've got a strong brand. We've got strong franchisees. We might be having a record-breaking year, even in a challenged economy."
ASD spoke with Flores to learn about what's driving L&L's current growth, her goals for the company's future and more. Here's what she had to say. Responses have been edited for brevity and readability.
What is the push, the drive behind the pace of growth that L&L is seeing?
I always feel like we're just very lucky. I attribute too much to luck, but I think we are lucky.
Hawaiian barbecue, or anything Hawai‘i-related, continues to be very strong as a brand, as an experience, as a destination. In the food space, in the last couple of years, there's just been a strong desire from customers for plate lunch or for food from Hawai‘i. You've seen this with Zippy's [opening] their fifth location in Las Vegas. ... Our competitors are also expanding.
So one, on a macro level, I think there's ... greater demand for our product. Internally, most of the openings this year have been from existing franchisees. They already own one store and now they own more. ... To me, it's a great testament if you have people who are already in your business who want to keep doing more. Clearly their businesses are doing well. They're building expertise. They're deepening their roots in their community and they're finding places where they can open another location. And as we continue to mature and just have more time existing as a company, hopefully that will continue, as well.
At the same time, we've had a couple of brand new franchisees. ... We continue to have people who have such a strong affinity for the company or for the food or, most likely, just for Hawai‘i. Oftentimes they lived here or they spent time here or they still have family here, and now they're living somewhere like Orlando, Florida, and they miss home so much, they miss the food so much, and they just want to bring a bit of it to wherever they are and that continues to grow.
How is L&L continuing to build its development pipeline? How are you finding franchisees?
In the last couple years, we've been a little bit more intentional, meaning, for example, my VP of development is on the road tomorrow, going to Baltimore to do a franchise expo. ... So, we're doing a little bit more of that. ... The most common way we find new franchisees is somebody has eaten at an L&L in California or in Colorado, and they're like 'Oh my gosh, can I own one of these?' and then they call us. So, we've been trying to be intentional and do meet-and-greets within restaurants for the customers because sometimes they turn into franchisees.
And, as I shared, we've had a lot more of our existing franchisees wanting to expand, so we've also been focusing on providing some resources or just even having conversation [with them]. ... So, we're working on developing our existing franchisees and doing some small outreach to find new franchisees.
I can say we're being very intentional and we're being very small about it, because counter to many other companies, they're trying to sell hundreds and hundreds of franchises. We want to grow true to our values. We want to grow at a pace that makes sense for our entire brand.
What is the long-term vision for L&L?
I made a strategic plan a couple years ago, I think in 2022, with a 10-year vision, and within those 10 years to get to 500 stores. My goal is still to get to 500 stores; I think my timeline has been extended. The last couple of years, there's been a little bit more going on in the world that has slowed the pace down. But again, if this year we hit 25, then I feel like we're getting back on track to the pace that we should be.
You talked about your franchising efforts. Are there other things you're doing to work toward that goal?
We're fully franchised, but as a franchisor, we have a corporate team and we've always run very lean. We're probably still lean, but at the same time we've been expanding. We've got new people on the ops team. I've got new people on our marketing team because we have more and more franchisees to support. We've expanded our development team, so we can be a little bit more proactive in going to franchise expos.
At the same time, the operations team, for example, we've been looking at how we can we really be operationally more efficient. Are there products or processes that we can improve upon, that still deliver a great taste and value to customers but just help make operations easier? Yes, there are. So, we've been looking at a couple of things and working with our manufacturers to do that. Also, that makes it a little bit easier for new franchisees to come in. It's not as labor-intensive, let's say, to run the restaurant. And then on the marketing side ... now that it's a little bit more competitive and because, economically, it's a little bit more challenging, I feel like we're really trying to carve our space out in the noise of restaurants and really carving a lane that feels right to us and our brand and to our customers. We found our lane and we're leaning into our messaging.
So, I think in terms of my full team and what we're doing here, we're really focused on driving success of the current stores, but also making sure we can bring in new franchisees and we're all focused on that.
Learn more about franchising here.
Eddie Flores Jr. and Johnson Kam acquired L&L Drive-Inn in 1976. The restaurant founded as L&L Dairy back in 1952. In 1999, they introduced the franchise to the Mainland. Elisia Flores, Eddie Flores' daughter, took over as the CEO of L&L in 2019.
L&L's menu centers around the "plate lunch," with two scoops of rice, macaroni salad and a choice of protein.
Earlier this year, L&L was ranked No. 138 on Entrepreneur’s 2026 Franchise 500.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
