Roy Choi Reveals Plans for Loco’l, a New Kind of Fast Food Restaurant

The Loco’l mascot. Photo: Loco’l

At this weekend’s Bite conference in Silicon Valley, food truck pioneer Roy Choi gave an impassioned speech. “We really do believe that there’s a better way to feed people,” he said, and that way doesn’t include the kind of preservative-packed fare found at McDonald’s and Burger King. Fast food can — no, should — be both cheap and nourishing, he implored. Especially in communities where other options simply don’t exist.

Over the last few months, murmurings of Choi’s plans (which included an enormously successful Indigogo funding campaign) have reached a fever pitch. Now it’s out in the open: Choi and his team plan to open Loco’l, a chain of brick-and-mortar fast food restaurants serving healthy, inventive fare with flavor that satisfies.

“Loco’l is a fast food restaurant restaurant run by the best chefs in the world,” Choi told the room, adding that his team includes famed chefs Daniel Patterson (Coi), Chad Robertson (Tartine Bakery), and Rene Redzepi (Noma, MAD Symposium). Together, they’re figuring out “how we get umami if we’re only charging $4 for it.”

Daniel Patterson (left) and Roy Choi (right) are part of the team behind Loco’l. Photo: Loco’l

The operation’s centerpiece offering will be a burger featuring a patty that’s 30 percent grain and 70 percent beef. It’ll be served on a toasted rice bun with charred scallion relish, jack cheese, and an emulsified sauce of tomatoes, lime juice, and fermented chili paste. Also in the mix: More sandwiches, rice bowls, snacks, and fresh vegetables. And for dessert, serve soft-serve ice cream topped with house-made fruit and vegetable compote and syrups.

By December of this year, Choi hopes to open the first Loco’l in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, a 2.12-square-mile area infamous for high levels of crime and gang violence. A second location in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco will open soon after, and through the end of 2017, up to 28 additional outposts are in the works for communities including Baltimore, south Chicago, east Oakland, north St. Louis, southwest Detroit, north Miami, Newark, Camden, N.J., the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, N.Y., and New Orleans.

Choi isn’t just looking to bring better food and opportunity to these neighborhoods — he’s looking to change how America perceives these places. Following publication of this story, Choi Tweeted to Yahoo: 

Choi hopes to offer region-specific dishes at each location. “We will plug in each local flavor,” he said. “Like Watts, you better have a turkey sandwich on the menu … They eat turkey in Watts.” But Loco’l’s appeal won’t merely be its food — Choi says the spaces will be design-forward, and convey a hipness that will lure in consumers, especially younger generations.

Just as important to Locol’s mission as its menu is its staffing plan: Choi wants the shops to serve food not just for the community, but by it.

Loco’l’s signature burger. Photo: welocolfood/Facebook

“Every single job we’re going to offer to each community first,” he said. “It starts way before we open: the demo crew, the construction crew, dry wall, everything … It’s all going to be first right or refusal from the community first.” That may mean teaching community members certain culinary skills, like baking bread and prepping vegetables. “It’s a training program, and as chefs, we’re going to teach them everything we know.”

This cartoon cast will be part of Loco’l’s branding. Photo: Loco’l

So how will Choi manage to juggle this massive undertaking and his popular Los Angeles food truck Kogi? He’s not sure himself.

“It’s one of those things where I’m almost worried about how much time I’ll give to my other places… It’s consumed my life,” he told Yahoo Food. “You know, it’s like when you fall in love, when you get infatuated with someone so deeply that it’s not just love.”

But all of that is beside the point. “What I need the most is the community to love the food,” he said. “That’s the most important thing.”

More uplifting stories from the food world:

How you’re saving the world by eating Ben & Jerry’s

15 ways to eat more sustainably in 2015

Growing Warriors, an organization that turns veterans into farmers

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