Aloha Poké Co., a Chicago’s poké pioneer, announced its entrance into Colorado by way of Zeppelin Station, the new market hall and creative workplace coming soon to Denver’s River North neighborhood. This location marks Aloha Poké Co.’s first venture into a new market.
Aloha Poké Co. has been packing poké bowls in Chicago since March 2016 when the first location opened within the French Market. Since then, the concept has expanded to have three additional locations in Chicago—within Revival Food Hall, in the Lakeview neighborhood, and just outside of Chicago in Evanston. Zeppelin Station is Aloha Poke Co.’s first location outside of Chicago, with Denver being a natural progression for the team.
“Denver made perfect sense to us from the very beginning. The food scene here is so vibrant and we’re excited to get to know the locals. We’ve had our eyes on this city for quite some time now,” says co-founder and operating partner Zach Friedlander.
Aloha Poké Co.’s menu offers build-your-own style poké bowls, allowing guests to create a meal as adventurous as they’d prefer. Guests first choose a base of rice or mixed greens, then select from sashimi-grade tuna, salmon, or tofu—all of which can be served marinated or “naked”—and then pack in as many toppings as they’d like. Options include edamame, pineapple, ginger, cucumber, and avocado, amongst other veggies and seasonings. Aloha Poké Co. also offers sauces such as Yuzu Ranch, Spicy Aioli, and Sesame Vinaigrette. Customers may opt to order from three House Creations – Aloha, Crunch, and Volcano—if they’d prefer to leave the choices to the experts.
This new partnership between Aloha Poké Co. and Zeppelin Development stems from an existing relationship between Aloha and Zeppelin’s Director of Hospitality Development, Justin Anderson. Prior to joining the Zeppelin team, Anderson helped curate the vendor selection for Revival Food Hall in Chicago, of which Aloha Poké Co. is a part. Anderson and Friedlander kept in contact once Anderson relocated to Denver for this project, and Aloha Poké Co. was one of the first restaurants that Zeppelin Development approached for this new market hall.
“With our previous connection in Chicago and the direction in which we are looking to program the overall F&B at Zeppelin Station, bringing on Aloha made sense as the logical first step. Their success and approach to operations, along with my previous working relationship with Zach and his team, made their involvement pretty seamless. We are looking forward to having them in Denver and a part of this unique project,” says Anderson.
“We are so happy to continue working with Justin [Anderson] with this new market hall. Through our time together at Revival Food Hall here in Chicago, we’ve learned that we work very well together and our bottom lines are the same—serve good food to great people. We’re excited to be part of this new concept that will bring together so many different cuisines, people, and experiences.”
Aloha Poké Co. is the first of a number of food vendors to be announced as part of Zeppelin Station, set to open in late 2017. The market hall will house food and beverage vendors from cities across the country, bringing the nation’s premier offerings to Denver.
