Polynesian restaurant opening in 2024

A popular French casual Polynesian restaurant known as Poke Stop is coming to Germantown Village on the Calhoun Station Parkway next year.

Rachel Phuong Le, is the owner of Poke Stop, currently located in the Dogwood Festival shopping complex in Flowood, and is planning to bring the second location to Germantown by January 2024.

“We are very excited,” she said.

The brand has established itself as a popular stop. Le got her start in the Cultivation Food Hall in The District at Eastover in late 2018 and has been in Flowood for a little over a year now.

Poke is a Polynesian dish often associated with Hawaii. “It is basically a deconstructed sushi roll in a bowl,” Le said, though her bowls feature a variety of ingredients outside of raw fish and sushi rice. She said most of their meals can be customized to accommodate any number of food requirements, diets, or preferences.

Le is originally from Long Beach, Calif. Le said most of the people in her high school were of Polynesian descent and in many parts of town there was a Poke restaurant on almost every corner. She saw the cuisine as a unique item she could introduce to the Jackson area that she also knew would be delicious. 

Some of Le’s friends have called her “foods biggest fan.” She said she loves cooking, eating and experimenting with food and always wanted to open a restaurant. This gave her an excuse to do a lot of experimenting.

“If I am not going to eat it I am not going to serve it to my customers,” Le said. “I am not vegan but I wanted to make sure I thought our vegan food was delicious for example.”

She has since had some family move to Mississippi to help her grow Poke Stop. 

Le said the ultimate seal of approval is her customers. Specifically, she said a lad she calls “Ms. Ann” comes in from time. Ms. Ann is from Hawaii and says Le’s Spam musubi, a fried slice of spam sandwiched between two blocks of pressed rice and a signature Hawaiian dish, reminds her of home.

She said knowing she has the seal of approval from “someone from the islands” is a good sign she is on the right track.

For more information visit pokestopjxn.com