Customers Enjoy Spam Musubi, Other Island Staples

San Diego State University student John Scalia sits at a table inside the cozy confines of a newly opened L&L Hawaiian Barbecue on El Cajon Boulevard. He's eagerly awaiting the arrival of his favorite dish - Spam musubi.

"When I was in Maui, I ate a lot of the food there," Scalia said. "I love Hawaiian food." As he spoke, Hawaiian pop music blared from the speakers inside the small diner. "I checked this out. They have pretty much authentic food here." He favors musubi, a block of sticky rice, topped with a fried slice of Spam wrapped in seaweed. Besides being tasty, it's easy to carry and eat. "I had a few musubis when I was in Maui and I really enjoyed it and now I've finally found a place that actually had them." It's mid-afternoon, well past the noon lunch rush, but there's no shortage of customers. Travis Ward, another SDSU student, raves about the barbecue beef. "I like Hawaiian food," he said. "I've never been to the islands. Eating here's the next best thing to actually paying all the money to get out there." Well known in Hawaii Though little-known in San Diego, the history of L&L Drive-Inn and Hawaiian Barbecue is well-known in Hawaii business circles. Entrepreneur Eddie Flores, Jr. teamed up with and Kwock Yum "Johnson" Kam in 1976, arriving upon a simple yet profitable concept that features a m�lange of foreign flavors such as chicken katsu, beef curry, deep fried shrimp, barbecue short ribs, hamburger steak and yes, even musubi made with Spam. The plate lunch orders include generous scoops of rice and macaroni salad. Today on the Hawaiian Islands, L&L's red-lettered logo featuring a surfboard is a familiar one, with 50 locations serving its 1.2 million residents. Steve Perez / SIGNONSANDIEGO The red-lettered L&L logo, as shown on a beverage cup. Taking advantage of a burgeoning Pacific Islander and Asian population in California, the nation's most populous state, L&L has embarked on an aggressive expansion. Over the last three years, 17 new quick service locations have opened throughout the state. Franchise opportunities are available throughout the U.S. mainland, according to the company's Web site. The asking price is $30,000, plus monthly royalty fees of 2 percent of gross sales and a monthly advertising and promotion fee of 1 percent of gross sales. Buyers can expect to invest up to $465,000, depending upon the location. "By end of this year there will be 30 restaurants on the mainland," said Flores, L&L's president and its unofficial head cheerleader. "That includes California, Nevada, Washington and Connecticut." By next year, Flores expects the Hawaiian invasion to spread to locations in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New York. STEVE PEREZ / SignOnSanDiego Part-time employee Eliza Rosas greets callers with a friendly 'aloha' at the restaurant on El Cajon Boulevard.

"No one has done what we have done to spread the spread the 'Aloha Spirit,' " he said. "When you come to our store, you have the feeling of Hawaii." Call in an order, and you're liable to be greeted with a cheery 'aloha,' by Eliza Rosas, a part-time employee and SDSU student. "We do it just for fun anyway," she said, "not because we have to." The San Diego store is the second opened in the county by Ben Gudoy, 31-year-old prot�g� of Flores. He plans to open a third and fourth before long. No overnight success While customers are now flocking to the Hawaiian fare in San Diego, it didn't happen overnight. Gudoy, a University of Hawaii graduate with travel industry management, met Flores through their activities in the Filipino Junior Chamber of Commerce in Honolulu while Gudoy was still a student. Flores was impressed with the young man's participation in a variety of volunteer community projects, eventually hiring him as his assistant in 1998. Ben Gudoy When Gudoy learned of plans to expand to California, he wanted a piece of the action, but Flores made him pledge to learn the operation side of the business before taking the next step. "If wants to run the operation, he has to cut chicken like everyone else," Flores said. It wasn't easy for the college kid to swallow his pride, but he did, learning first-hand how to chop chickens, wash dishes, clean floors and perform the wide variety of tasks that go into keeping a restaurant running. In August, 2001, he helped open a store in Garden, the second L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in the state. "Because of that, I understand what goes into the job," Gudoy said. "The guys I'm hiring know that I know what they're going through. I know how hard it is." The manager still pitches in today. "Even though I'm their manager and boss, I'm still doing the type of work they're doing," he said. Major move For Gudoy, the move to California was a major one. "It was just myself and my wife, Vicky" he said. "We were newly married. It was scary, leaving family back home. That was a big thing. We knew opportunities were here (on the mainland), but with both of us still being at a young age, we felt like we had to take the chance." While Hawaii is saturated with L&L outlets, the possibilities appear endless on the mainland. In San Diego county alone, there are 2.9 million residents. The average revenue per restaurant on the mainland is $600,000, according to Flores, 25 percent higher than those on Hawaii. U.S. Census figures show the vast majority of Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (73 percent) live in the west. Gudoy and his wife had visited San Diego during their honeymoon in 2000. While not as warm as Hawaii, the mild climate still featured the Pacific Ocean. "We felt the weather was similar to Hawaii," he said. "But we could also experience some kind of winter weather more than in Hawaii." Plus, the newlyweds weren't completely alone. Flores, Gudoy's mentor, helped guarantee loans and leases in return for part ownership, and his cousin, Erwin Corpuz, is a partner in the first San Diego County location, National City. Why National City? "We wanted to be safe a bit," Gudoy said. "National City, from what I understand, is known for having a big Filipino and Polynesian community. We were new to the area. We know they eat at least rice." They first opened there in May 2002, at 1860-B Sweetwater Road, with the help of imported Hawaiian cooks, part of Gudoy's extended family. Hawaiians Michael Palado, Allan Abad, Jonathan Ureta and Eufe Gudoy, another cousin, also have a stake in the San Diego store. "When you visit one of their stores, it's almost like visiting a Hawaii store," Flores said. "The whole gang's from Hawaii." The first opening was adrenaline-inducing, Ben Gudoy said. "You start wondering, are people going to accept the food?" he said. "As days go by, you start to see the number of people come in. But there was always that nervousness of wondering if people would be accepting the food. I guess that's our biggest concern. We also have these 'copycatters,' another is opening in National City next month, I don't know the name, but we believe they have the same type of food as we do, it's something we expect. We take that as a good sign." While there's no shortage of such competitors for America's fast-food dollar, the L&L stores have few peers when it comes to portion size. Even Flores confesses to being unable to finish a full meal by himself. "You really get what you pay for," Rosas said. "The chicken katsus, sometimes we can barely even close the lids to the boxes." Outside the San Diego location, Ward's friend, Chandra Parham, attempts to tackle a meal featuring a generous helping of teriyaki chicken. "I actually had this (made by another company) during a luau in Hawaii," she said. "In comparison, this is very good. It only cost $6. My goodness, this is a lot. I'm not going to finish this all." "I'll help you out," Ward said.

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