Hometown Poké Opens Brick-and-Mortar Restaurant

Tasty, healthy, and fast – that’s the idea behind Hometown Poké, a food truck that has served the East Side since last summer. Hometown specializes in poké, a Hawaiian dish made of rice, veggies, and raw fish.

“It’s basically sushi in a bowl,” says Tiffany Ting, who co-owns Hometown with best friend Rebecca Brady. “That’s how we always describe it to people who have never heard of poké. But sushi is expensive, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t get full on one sushi roll.”

Brady and Ting left their corporate jobs to open the Hometown Poké food truck, and they’ve based their operations in the Pilotworks incubator on the West Side, where they’ve shared commercial kitchen space with other startups. While the truck was dormant for the winter, the long days of cooking, loading, and schlepping across the city have paid off: the pair has now opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Mount Hope.

“Growing up in Rhode Island, it wasn’t always super easy to find healthy food that was fast,” says Brady, who grew up in Pawtucket. Brady lived in California and has traveled with Ting around the world, so they have a good basis of comparison. “I think Rhode Island has changed so much. There are so many young people, and the city is changing, and there’s a [desire] for things to do. We knew pretty much right away that we wanted to do it here.” 185 Camp Street