Ahipoki, the first to bring health conscious poke restaurants to the culinary scene in Arizona, is set for the opening of its 10th location in Queen Creek, Arizona at the corner of Rittenhouse and Ellsworth by the end of April.
As the first poke restaurant to hit the food scene in April of 2016 in Scottsdale, Arizona, the group took the restaurant scene by storm. 2017 was a year of outstanding growth with openings in Tempe, Central Phoenix, Gilbert and Avondale. Combined with the fifteen locations in California, the twenty-five total stores makes Ahipoki the largest and fastest growing corporately owned poke chain in America. The company as a whole is seeing how the poke food category is really starting to mature, which has really started to become a staple for health conscious, on-the-go eaters nationwide.
Ahipoki will announce a firm opening date soon with special grand opening deals.
Jason Jantzen and Michael Zimmerman of Wade Foster Investments, LLC did not start this endeavor with a large war chest at their disposal—in fact, quite the opposite. With the exception of a few family loans, the team has boot-strapped the entire growth of Ahipoki in Arizona from day one. Building on the success of their first two openings in Scottsdale and Chandler in 2016, they’ve been diligent about reinvesting all of their profits to fund future growth, without paying themselves for the first year. They firmly believe the category has strong appeal across the country and are pursuing options to capitalize the company for nationwide growth.
“When we look back two years ago at how this all came together, it almost seems like a fairy tale when you consider the upward trajectory our company has been on since day one,” says Jantzen. “We’ve been fortunate to have been so well received by the community which has really been the backbone to our growth.”
“Introducing a completely new food concept to a virgin market was a massive risk,” says Zimmerman. “When the time came to either sign our first lease or tuck tail and go home, we decided to go for it based on our assumption that poke would fit in well with Phoenix’s health conscious habits and we haven’t looked back since.”
Ahipoki will also being opening outside of the Valley this summer in Flagstaff, AZ.
