Renovated Pokémoto Reopens With Original Owners In Hamden

HAMDEN, CT — Pokémoto is celebrating its reopening in Hamden with its original owners, along with the addition of a Loose Leaf boba tea shop.

Pokémoto, which is a chain of Hawaiian poke bowl eateries with more than a dozen locations in Connecticut, reopened with its new, former owners at 2100 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden in September.

Owner Lisa Bok said her family previously owned Froyoworld, which opened in 2011, in the same location. However, they decided to close Froyoworld due to “different demands of our customers” and turned it into Pokémoto more than five years ago, according to Bok.

Bok said they sold Pokémoto a few years ago, but the store “didn’t do so well” during that time.

“We decided to buy it back, renovate the whole store and add the addition of Loose Leaf Boba tea,” Bok said. “Many in the community were really upset to see us leave since we were there day in and day out, really getting to know all of our customers. But thankfully we had an opportunity to take it back over again, revamp it and bring it back to life again.”

Bok said the Hamden and Wallingford locations are the only two stores that have Pokémoto and Loose Leaf together.

“We decided to add Loose Leaf Boba tea in there since there was a demand for Boba tea,” Bok said. “What makes us different is that everything is made in house using only the freshest, premium and organic ingredients. Unlike other Boba shops that use powders and syrups, we use fresh fruit purées and in house made sweeteners. We also have different milks such as locally sourced Arethusa dairy milk, almond milk and oat milk.”

Pokémoto offers Hawaiian-style poke bowls, along with burritos, salads and more.

“For those first timers we have a handful of delicious signature bowls that one can choose from such as the Hawaiian bowl, which is the most popular for the signature bowls, miso salmon bowl, sweet and spicy shrimp bowl, Pokemoto tofu bowl or the sesame ginger chicken bowl,” Bok said. “These can all be made into a seaweed wrap or a salad as well. The most popular is customized bowl.”

Bok said they can “cater to all dietary needs, whether one is vegan, needs gluten-free, dairy free, egg free, etc.”

She said taking over the Hamden Pokémoto has been a “great experience” so far.

“We had to take a risk in deciding if we wanted to take the store over to revamp it in all aspects and, of course, trying to bring it back to life and success,” Bok said. “Deep in our heart, we knew this was the right decision since we heard so many people wanting ‘the old Pokemoto back….’ and wanted the community to have a healthy and different option for meal. We did everything on our end such as making sure our staff was trained very well, making sure that our store was fully equipped with all of our high quality and premium products and left and then let our good intentions and faith take over.

“It has been a great experience so far. A lot of people coming back that we recognize many years ago that we’re excited to see us. People loving the Loose Leaf addition as well.”