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    Is the poke boom over? Aloha Poke doesn't think so, plans to open 100 restaurants within three years

    by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Chicago Tribune Oct 01, 2019 6 minutes

    CHICAGO - Chris Birkinshaw had barely settled in as CEO at Aloha Poke last year when the budding young chain became engulfed in a branding crisis.

    Chicago's largest purveyor of poke, in an effort to protect its trademark, had infuriated some Hawaiians by sending cease-and-desist letters to poke restaurants with "aloha" in their names. Activists urged boycotts. Picketers protested in front of stores. Legislation in Hawaii to protect against cultural appropriation named the company for "in essence claiming ownership" of "aloha."

    But the controversy didn't quell Aloha Poke's ambitions. The chain, which has 11 locations in the Chicago area and seven more in a handful other states, is about to embark on an expansion it hopes will quintuple its presence across the country within the next three years.

    "I think poke, and particularly our poke, is the food of the future," Birkinshaw, 38, said.

    Poke, a dish of cubed raw fish that is commonplace in Hawaii (and pronounced poh-kay), exploded onto Chicago's dining scene in 2016

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