Alhambra’s Beloved Aloha Food Factory Hawaiian Likely to Be Demolished | Eater LA

"At the corner of Valley Boulevard and Cabrillo Avenue sits a 27-year-old Hawaiian restaurant, Aloha Food Factory, a beloved San Gabriel Valley institution opened by Betty and Ernest Tom in 1994 that serves island fare—including loco moco, Spam musubi, macadamia nut pancakes and kalua pork—and emphasizes the Hawaiian spirit of ohana. The restaurant may be forced to close when its lease ends at the end of this month after development plans filed with the city propose razing the 18,000-square-foot corner lot it shares with Ernie’s Burgers to make room for an automated car wash; lot owner Malcolm Arakelian says a car wash would be an “ideal” use and is not considering keeping the current restaurant tenants. Co-owners Aaron Luong and James Kuang, who stepped in during the pandemic to help the founders and brought the mostly analog operation online with a new ordering system and third-party delivery when it reopened last August, have been urging customers via the restaurant’s Instagram to attend the public hearing at Alhambra City Hall on June 7 at 7 p.m. to try to impede or delay the project. Signs advertising the hearing were erected May 26, prompting surprise from Betty, and customers have been flocking in to eat the kalua pork—traffic doubled on a recent weekend—while Luong scouts potential vacancies along Valley Boulevard in case relocation becomes necessary." - Cathy Chaplin