VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- It did not take long for Jesse Wykle and his restaurant Aloha Snacks to make an impact in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Months after he opened Aloha Snacks in 2018, Food Network Star Bobby Flay's producers called and invited Wykle onto the hit show "Beat Bobby Flay."
Wykle defeated the Iron Chef by challenging Bobby Flay in a battle over the Filipino favorite lumpia.
Back home in Virginia Beach, Wykle's food at Aloha Snacks is heavily influenced by Asian and Hawaiian cuisine and his own Southern roots.
"You can put anything in a sushi roll. We've got some poke bowls with fried green tomatoes, which we call the farmer's poke, a little coconut aoli, some pressed mango, and some salmon," Wykle said about one of the dishes he serves at Aloha Snacks in Virginia Beach.
Wykle sits on boards working to improve the Virginia Beach business community and hopes to see many new customers when the Something in the Water festival returns to Virginia Beach April 28 thru April 30.
On this episode of Eat It, Virginia, Chef Wykle discusses how his past kitchen experiences and the Virginia Beach vibe helped inspire Aloha Snacks.
"I wanted to have a fun wordplay with snacks. I'm not gonna lie, we still get a ton of people that come in asking what kind of candy we sell," Wykle said on the podcast. "I was just over the whole let's sit down and have a four-course meal. Not to say that those places aren't awesome and I love the dine as much as the next person. But we wanted to be able to open for breakfast, lunch, and early dinner, where you could come in and have a tiki drink and a burger or poke."
"There is nobody doing any kind of Aloha Hawaiian theme at the beach, you know, where our demographic is just so largely entrenched in what's happening in Hawaii," he continued. "We just felt like, hey, let's open and do some poke and see how it goes?"
So where else does Chef Wykle recommend for Virginia Beach visitors and Something in the Water festival goers?
"So if you're working down from the North End... you've got all Bruce Thompson's stuff. Orion'sis a little bit more high-end. You got the Hunt Room," he suggested. "You've got eat right there, which is great because you're on a bike and they have zero. Right? You're gonna go see my buddy Chad bartending and they do a great job, Eric's the chef. You know, I love their small bites... there's a Mellow Mushroom right there. Of course, that whole strip where like Pacifica is andLove Song, there's Duck Dive which is a new bar there."
During the afternoon, he said to spend time exploring First Landing State Park (64th Street entrance).
"Then come out and maybe hang a left and go up to Shore Drive and bop around and do lunch at Hot Tuna, Leaping Lizard, BoBo's Chicken. BoBo's Chicken I think is 'fire' fried chicken."
He also has suggestions for the best Chinese food and Latin American food in Virginia Beach, but you'll have to listen to the podcast for that one (57:50).
Aloha Snacks is located at 501 Laskin Road in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
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