FreshFin
Poke bowls are the latest fast casual trend to hit Madison.
While we’ve seen tacos dominating the menus of new area restaurants over the last year, it appears that the infinitely customizable Mexican tortilla pocket has big bold competition in the infinitely customizable Hawaiian fish salad bowl, poke. Nationally, poke has been tapped as the latest fast-casual trend. And that makes sense. Poke bowls are fun to put together and suit a variety of dietary needs.
Poke took Madison unawares in August 2016 with the opening of Miko Poké on Monroe Street. And the dish has been popping up all over town since, in such Asian-influenced spots as Ramen Kid, Muramoto and Mad Seafood Boiler, but also in less expected spots like Eno Vino and Bonfyre American Grill, or as an appetizer served on wonton chips at The Great Dane. There are even premade poke bowls at the deli counter at Festival Foods. Festival assistant manager Tami Koeth says that given the store’s success with sushi, poke bowls seemed like the natural next step “and they’ve been selling really well.”
A new poke spot, Poke Poke, will soon be opening in the Gateway Mall on Williamson Street. And now FreshFin, a poke eatery from Milwaukee, is headed to the ground floor of the luxury student high rise The James, 432 W. Gorham St.
FreshFin was Milwaukee’s first poke-specific restaurant, opening in January 2017. It has since opened a second Milwaukee location and is on the verge of opening a third, in suburban Brookfield. The Madison location will be its first foray outside of greater Milwaukee.
Andrew Foster, a partner in FreshFin with founder and chef Nate Arkush, is about to graduate from the UW-Madison MBA program, and says he knew downtown Madison would be a great next step for the young chain. They see business from UW-Madison students augmented by “a booming population of young business professionals living downtown,” says Foster. Fast, healthy and customizable are key concepts to this demographic.
At FreshFin, customers order at the counter, choosing a protein (salmon and ahi tuna are raw, as is traditional with poke, but there’s also cooked shrimp, chicken and a vegan option), a base (brown or white rice, or salad greens), sauce and 20 add-ons and toppings from daikon radish and cilantro to tobiko (flying fish roe) and shiitake mushrooms. Food is made in a back kitchen (rather than put together assembly-line fashion at the counter) and finished bowls are delivered to the table. The Gorham Street location will seat about 50; Foster would like to add some additional patio seating for the summer, pending approval from the city.
Arkush, who has a culinary arts from Austin Community College and degrees in business administration from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and DePaul, also created five signature bowls. The most popular is the spicy tuna, made with premium sustainably fished tuna, says Foster. Another popular combo is the coconut mango shrimp bowl. Many of the sauces are Arkush’s creations and made in-house. Sides are steamed edamame, truffle crab salad, seaweed salad and quinoa puffs.
Foster says they hope to open FreshFin this summer. Customers not arriving on foot will have to find street parking, but Foster notes that they will have a spot to pick up to-go orders and that they also utilize the EatStreet delivery service.
