"A-Frame has always been Hawaiian. Look at our popcorn, our ribs, our island Maui onion salad. But it was more of an impression than a direct interpretation. It was a translation of aloha in an abstract sense. A modern space filled with communal picnics and sharing and generosity. So, really, this change is not an abandonment of what A-Frame is, but more of an extension of it even further now after our fifth year.
Our new chef, Johnny Yoo, inspired me to look deeper into Hawaii and take it from the abstract to the real. True Ono grindz. He started experimenting in the kitchen and the food was coming out killer. So, I decided to take a trip to Hawaii and breathe in the culture once again from the islands, a place I've been going to since I was 16, and a place where many of my ohana live.
Whether it’s the Caribbean with Sunny Spot or POT with second-generation Asian Americans or Kogi on the streets or Chego to stoners or Commissary to vegetarians or Alibi Room to Westsiders or 3 Worlds Cafe to the community or the airport and the love we get there from TSA to the tarmac guys to the Pinoy baggage crews and on—I never try to do something unless I understand a culture and feel we can represent it and respect it, but also have the courage to push it and morph it like a DJ would a song. I wouldn't do anything unless the people from these cultures know we are real: no matter how different it may have been twisted, it still feels like home.
I wouldn't do A-Frame al