Chicago’s Aloha Poke Co. Faces Boycott Over Cultural Appropriation From Hawai’ian Locals | Eater Chicago

"I followed the controversy over Aloha Poke Co., a Chicago-based chain that first brought its poke bowls to Chicago in 2016 and has since expanded to Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and San Diego with millions in investment from Levy Family Partners. As the company prepped for national expansion, it sent cease-and-desist letters to businesses using the words “aloha” and “poke,” a move that reportedly pressured at least one Washington state restaurant to change its name and has now been said to target family-owned, native Hawaiian restaurants in Hawai‘i; the exact language of those letters hasn’t been made public. The outreach ignited a viral backlash after activist Dr. Kalamaokaaina Niheu recorded a video arguing that “aloha” is culturally significant and has been commodified, prompting floods of negative Yelp and Facebook reviews, an online petition demanding the chain remove “aloha” and “poke” from its name, and personal messages directed at founder Zach Friedlander, who left the company months ago but issued an email apology calling the situation a misunderstanding and expressing remorse for offending native Hawaiians. Amid this, I noted that poke—a dish of raw fish often flavored with soy sauce and sesame oil—is an integral part of Hawaiian cultural identity, and critics say the company’s legal moves and expansion underscore power imbalances between well-funded investors and struggling family businesses on the islands." - Ashok Selvam