Zippy’s Opens Its First Location Outside Hawaiʻi in, Where Else, Vegas

Fani Leilua drove all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah—more than 400 miles!—to eat at Zippy’s on the day it opened in Las Vegas.

“When you fly into Hawaiʻi that’s the first stop you make and always the last stop because it‘s always something you wanna take back home,” she said in a video provided by the restaurant chain. “Knowing that it’s not only in Hawaiʻi, it’s going to be out here in Vegas, so it’s not too far from us now. It’s only a drive away. We can always drive down and get some ʻono food. It’s cool. It’s exciting.”

The grand opening of the restaurant at 7095 Badura Ave. on Oct. 10—and 10:10 a.m.—was filled with Hawaiʻi-style fanfare, from a traditional Hawaiian blessing and untying of a maile lei to Hawaiian chants and hula.

Halau performed hula outside the new Zippy’s Restaurant in Las Vegas on Oct. 10.
Photo: Courtesy of Zippy’s Restaurants

Thousands of people from all over—many with ties to the Islands—lined up outside the restaurant, located 15 minutes from The Strip. Many had been waiting four years for the restaurant chain to open here, after it announced its plans to expand to the Ninth Island (what locals call Las Vegas) in 2019. The opening was delayed due to the pandemic.

“This day just felt like it took forever to get to, so we are really excited,” said Jay Kaneshiro, vice president of operations at FCH Enterprises, the parent company of the restaurant chain. “I know the team here is doing an awesome job of preparing and getting ready.”

The company hired more than 200 employees to work at its Las Vegas location.

The restaurant, which has 22 locations on three islands in Hawaiʻi, features a menu of local favorites, including chili, Korean fried chicken and the popular Zip Pac. Napoleon’s Bakery—with dobash cakes, cornbread and malasadas—opened, too.

The roughly 8,000-square-foot restaurant is about the same size and layout as the company’s Waipiʻo, ʻEwa and Mililani locations, with take-out, dine-in and a bakery. The company also built a central kitchen—there’s one on Oʻahu, too—that will produce food and bakery items for future Zippy’s locations.

A mural by curated by Hawaiʻi artists Jeff Gress and Kamea Hadar from the collective World Wide Walls outside Zippy’s new location in Las Vegas.
Photo: Courtesy of Zippy’s Restaurants

Zippy’s also made donations to four community partners in celebration of its opening. Three Square, Opportunity Village, The Just One Project and the Las Vegas Hawaiian Civic Club each received a donation of $10,000 in recognition of the services that they provide to those in need in the local Las Vegas community.

“In Hawaiʻi, as in many other places, tradition dictates that when you are invited to someone else’s house, you never arrive empty-handed,” said Kevin Yim, vice president of marketing for the restaurant chain. “So, as we enter Las Vegas, a place that isn’t our homeland, we come bearing gifts to those already of this place. We hope that these gifts market the start of a relationship between the people of Las Vegas, its community leaders and our own Zippy’s staff.”

Zippy’s Restaurant, 7095 Badura Ave., Las Vegas, Nevada, zippys.com.