Coconut’s Fish Cafe, based in Maui, Hawaii, is making a push into the mainland U.S. with the opening of the first of eight planned franchise units in Texas.
Coconut’s was founded in April 2009 in Kihei, Hawaii, and opened its first franchised restaurant in Dallas in mid-December, a 2,800-square-foot inline shopping center unit.
The company, which now has mainland headquarters in Reno, Nev., opened a licensed location in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2013. Coconut’s spent 2014 putting a franchise program in place.
Coconut’s Fish Cafe is a fast-casual concept that targets “a young family that cares about eating good food” in a friendly environment, said founder and CEO Michael Phillips.
“This may be fast casual, but it’s far from fast food,” Phillips said in an interview earlier this month at the Dallas restaurant. “All of our menu items are done in healthful, Hawaiian-style preparation.”
The next Texas unit will open in the Dallas suburb of Plano within two months, and two more locations are planned in the metropolitan area. The franchisee, Plano-based Desert Stream Restaurant Group, has also agreed to build four Coconut’s in the Austin market.
“The food is what really drew us in the most,” said Jeff Scherer, a partner in Desert Stream. “It’s very fresh, and you don’t see it anywhere else.”
Coconut’s earned approval in mid-2014 to expand through franchising in California, and the company is talking with possible developers in that market, Phillips said.
Phillips, who calls himself an “old-time surfer,” had retired to Maui and sought to open a restaurant in 2009 that was affordable for the locals, who were faced with a large number of higher-priced tourist eateries. He had been involved in pizza restaurants in the 1980s.
“I opened in the worst economic times possible,” he said of debuting the first Coconut’s in the early months of the recession. However, his initial 1,100-square-foot restaurant was an immediate hit and continues to be popular, doing as many as 14 table turns a day.
The Maui restaurant, with 60 seats inside and 20 on the patio, drew high praise from locals and tourists alike on social media sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp. This past holiday season, for example, the small restaurant saw typical days with 14 table turns.
Phillips said he returned to the restaurant business with the Maui Coconut’s because “I wanted a fish burger.” As he developed the first restaurant, “the menu grew to appeal to a broader audience. We tried to tie in the Hawaiian culture with things like mangoes. … I developed a mango salsa and that’s what’s on the fish taco,” he added.
More on menu, family recipes
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Several recipes, such as cocktail sauce and seafood chowder, came from Phillips’ family. The cole slaw recipe has a touch of wasabi that was recommended by his daughter, Frances Oney, who serves as the brand’s vice president of franchise operations.
Daniel Oney, chief operating officer and Phillips’ son-in-law, said Coconut’s made the decision to use gluten-free soy sauce, so now more than eight of the menu’s items are gluten-free without any modification. “There’s a growing health mentality,” Oney said.
About 70 percent of the Coconut’s sales are in fish tacos served on white-corn tortillas. Fish filets with rice are also selling, as well as fish and chips, Phillips said.
Customers order from a menu, printed on a surfboard, at a counter, and orders are delivered to the tables. Coconut’s also serves wine and beer.
Prices range from $6.99 for a mixed green salad to $14.99 for Macadamia-Crusted Mahi-Mahi. Appetizers include signature Coconut Shrimp with Thai chili pineapple sauce for $9.49, and Fish Tacos, two to an order, for $11.49. The children’s menu offers seven items, from Macaroni & Cheese to Quesadillas.
The menu also includes traditional Hawaiian dishes such as Ahi Poke marinated with soy, garlic and green onions and topped with fresh radish sprouts.
“The food looks sexy and healthy,” Phillips said.
While Hawaii has seen a number of imported mainland restaurants, brands exported from the island state have been rare. The most notable is Roy’s, a 29-unit casual-dining concept founded in Hawaii in 1988 by chef Roy Yamaguchi, a James Beard Award winner.
This story has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: Jan. 22, 2015 An earlier version of this story misstated the number of patio seats at the original location. There are 20 seats on the patio.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected].
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