Food trends come and go almost as quickly as the latest fashion. For Madison, that trend is a boom in poke restaurants.
We already saw a short-lived french fry trend starting with Mad City Frites in 2016, and more recently the closing of Disco Fries, which, like Mad City Frites, also only survived a little after a year of their opening. In its place arrived the first of three poke restaurants near campus this past April: Poke Plus & Teriyaki.
Why the sudden poke boom? Is this trend here to stay?
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Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish. It is generally comprised of a base of rice which is topped with cubes of raw fish, a mix of vegetables and fruits and customized with a variety of sauces. In simpler terms, think of poke as a raw fish salad. Each of the three poke locations serves the bowls with their own unique spin.
At Poke Plus & Teriyaki, customers create their bowls from scratch. The order counter allows diners to pick from a long list of toppings all displayed in front of them. After picking the base and fish, countless combinations can be made from the toppings and sauce choices.
Staff member Yan Zeng admits some people are overwhelmed by the amount of options.
“Here, you pick what you want, get it, and are off to class,” Zeng said.
Poke Plus & Teriyaki focuses on speed. As they are located on the always-bustling State Street, Zeng isn’t too bothered by the competition.
In addition to speed, this State Street poke shop offers a ten percent off student discount. They have a chalkboard sign on the sidewalk featuring this discount to anyone who passes by.
“State Street is the perfect place for a quick bite for students,” Zeng said. “People don’t go to the other [downtown poke locations] anyways.”
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A couple weeks after Poke Plus & Teriyaki opened, Poke It Up arrived at 540 University Ave, just a short walk off of State Street. David Wartham, co-owner of the restaurant, admitted he had no idea another poke restaurant was opening at the same time as his.
Warthman has a friend who opened up a Poke It Up in Arlington, Virginia. He saw how many people liked poke and felt there was a need in Madison for a healthy food option like this. Inspired by his friend, Warthman opened up a restaurant with the same name.
At Poke It Up, diners fill out an order form when they first walk in. The chefs prepare their food behind a counter and it’s ready for pick-up moments after paying.
While Warthman agrees with Zeng that competition is good, he has created a poke burrito on their menu to stand out, similar to large sushi roll. All of the contents of the bowl are simply wrapped into a burrito shape.
“People have no idea what it is until they order it and they are just like ‘wow’,” Warthman said.
Sophomore Hannah Newman, however, was not a fan of the burrito.
“The burrito ended up falling apart,” Newman said.
Newman has been to all three campus poke locations. Her personal favorite is FreshFin, located at 502 University Ave.
Andrew Foster, one of the owners of FreshFin, is a recent MBA graduate from the University of Wisconsin. FreshFin already has two Milwaukee locations — one in Brookfield and one in the Milwaukee Bucks’ Fiserv Forum.
Foster said he has a soft spot in his heart for Madison, which led to wanting to open up shop near campus.
“We’ve built a great following in Milwaukee and wanted to try and get that out here,” Foster said.
Their choice to stay away from State Street was intentional, Foster said. They wanted to try and expand beyond college students to attract the young business professionals and others in the downtown Madison area.
Although FreshFin arrived on campus months after Poke Plus & Teriyaki and Poke It Up, Foster started negotiations for their retail space back in August of 2017. He was fairly surprised by the number of poke shops that arrived in the time frame it took FreshFin to get on their feet.
At FreshFin, diners order at the counter and wait for their food while it is prepared out of their view. Unlike the other two poke shops who serve their toppings like slices of a pizza on top of their bowls, FreshFin mixes up the toppings for you.
Foster believes the quality of their ingredients and service make them stand out.
“We focus on high-quality customer service,” Foster said. “A lot of restaurants say that the customers come first, but we really mean it.”
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Another unique aspect to FreshFin is their loyalty program: “Earn a Bowl, Give a Bowl.” With this initiative, every time a customer earns a free bowl, FreshFin will also donate a bowl to a local charity or shelter. Their Madison location has chosen to donate to Porchlight, a Dane Country homeless shelter.
Newman likes that FreshFin not only tastes fresh, but offers the best environment and toppings she loves.
UW senior Sammi Golbert agrees about the quality of freshness and also loves the shop’s aesthetically pleasing interior.
While Newman sees having three poke places on campus as an advantage because people have options eliminating crowds or lines, Golbert thinks it is overkill.
“Two is okay if there is a major difference in price but three is just silly,” Golbert said. “One is bound to go out of business.”
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Golbert believes poke is just starting to spread as a trend and thinks the business will continue to grow or even keep changing as time progresses.
Does downtown have space for all three of these restaurants to survive? Only time will tell.
