'We keep it local': Hawaiian-inspired poke restaurant to open new Ormond Beach location
One of Volusia-Flagler’s most popular fast-casual eateries is gearing up for the grand opening of its new Ormond Beach location.
Stoked Poké, which currently holds locations in Port Orange, Daytona Beach and Flagler Beach, is counting down the days until it opens shop at 347 W. Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach, in the former location of Java Junction Coffee and Donuts.
The coastal eatery got its start back in 2018 as a food truck, owner Eric Jackson tells me, which still makes appearances at local events — most recently Jeep Beach week and Welcome to Rockville — and festivals across the country.
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It was during the pandemic that Jackson says he began evaluating the next steps within his ever-growing business, ultimately opening the doors to his first brick-and-mortar location in Port Orange at the end of 2020. It wasn’t but a year later that his Daytona Beach location was born, followed by his New Smyrna Beach restaurant — which has since closed — then Flagler Beach, and now Ormond Beach.
After more than eight months in the making, Jackson hopes to be open for business in just a couple of short weeks, serving the same menu of customizable poke and acai bowls that customers have come to know and love at his other locations.
“Its really open to the customer. You walk in and you see what you get, you know? You’re picking your food out and that’s probably another huge key factor to success for us,” Jackson explained.
“People like to be a part of what they’re eating. Everyone loves food and ordering off a menu, but when you walk in here, you get to pick every little ingredient — everything just the way you want it.”
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Stoked Poké also offers a generous menu of signature poke bowls, including the top-selling Lowers Bowl, which includes the customer's choice of a base and protein, with the addition of scallions, crispy bacon, mango, avocado, house-made spicy mayo and a sesame seed sprinkling.
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The free-spirited entrepreneur tells me it was his well-traveled 20s that ultimately inspired the creation of his now flourishing business, recalling everything from one-way tickets to Indonesia and backpacking across Southeast Asia, to a year settled in Australia, and most notably for Stoked Poké, a surfing trip to Hawaii with friends.
“If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, poke is like how we see a Starbucks or a Dunkin Donuts here — like you walk into a 7-Eleven in Hawaii and you can get a fresh, ahi tuna poke bowl. It's wild,” Jackson said.
“When we got back here, we were just like, there’s nothing — you can go to restaurants and have it on the menu, but nobody’s really doing just poke.”
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Inspired by the convenience of a Chipotle-style operation and the quality that authentic poke demands, Stoked Poké was born. The unique concept allows diners to layer bowls to their liking with fresh fish, among other proteins, and various textured toppings and drizzles of their choice.
The fast-casual restaurant also offers various street tacos — like the Old Bay shrimp taco and raw spicy poke taco — alongside several signature super fruit bowls.
“I love the (Chipotle) business model, so I thought, why can’t we do that? We can just do it with sushi — with poke,” Jackson said. “So, we didn’t really reinvent the wheel, we just kind of changed the tire on it, added sushi and all our stuff. And ever since then, it’s been working out great.”
Looking ahead with Stoked Poké
With a long-awaited opening right around the corner, tentatively mid-June, Jackson, who’s still in the throes of finishing up the Ormond space, hopes to embrace the same fun-loving, laid back atmosphere and high-quality cuisine customers new and returning are looking for when they stop by any Stoked Poké location.
“We keep it small; we keep it local, you know?” Jackson said. “The community has supported us throughout this whole journey and everywhere we’ve gone, and we just couldn’t be more blessed.”
Stoked Poké’s newest location 347 W. Granada Blvd. in Ormond Beach in the Winn Dixie shopping center with tentative hours of 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. daily once open. For information, visit stoked-poke.com or facebook.com/Stokedpoke.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Stoked Poké to open new restaurant location in Ormond Beach
