Known for customizable poke bowls and bubble tea, Hometown Poké will soon join the Fox Point neighborhood at 158 Wickenden St. Just a short walk from Brown’s campus, the eatery will fill the vacancy left by PVDonuts, which closed earlier this year.
Tiffany Ting, owner and manager of Hometown Poké, said that they are currently in the process of renovation and hope to open in the next month, or at least before the end of the year. She confirmed that Hometown Poké’s existing location and food truck will continue to operate.
Hometown Poké was founded in 2017 by Ting and Rebecca Brady. It started as a food truck before opening a permanent location in the Mount Hope neighborhood in October 2018. The eatery emphasizes using healthy and local ingredients, sourcing from Rhode Island producers such as Tony’s Seafood, Ting said. They currently offer signature and build-your-own bowls, as well as toasts, acai bowls and various teas.
Ting said that it was more of a recent decision to open the cafe’s second location. “I always felt like if the opportunity to open up in another cool neighborhood came upon me, I would jump at it,” she said.
She added that she has always loved the Wickenden area and has long looked out for vacancies in the neighborhood. When Ting saw that PVDonuts closed, she reached out to the building owner. The new location will feature the same items as the existing location, but Ting hopes to expand the menu using the new building’s larger kitchen.
These new offerings will include seasonal items, such as special bubble tea flavors. Hometown Poké is experimenting with “a boozy boba menu” for the new location because the Wickenden Street neighborhood is “more of a crowd that goes out and socializes,” Ting said.
Ting is particularly excited about the location’s proximity to Brown’s campus. “I feel like the format of poke and fast casual foods lends itself really well to the student population,” she said. “I’m excited to be able to reach more of those students in a … more accessible location.”
Pokeworks, located on Thayer Street, features poke bowls and milk tea. In response to the news of Hometown Poké’s upcoming arrival on Wickenden Street, Pokeworks Manager Mikell Carriere said that “everybody should have a chance to open up their own restaurant.”
“I feel like there’s a shortage of casual eats,” said Amy Nguyen ’27. “I’ll definitely go” to Hometown Poké, she added.
But Nguyen said she is concerned about the combination of boba and poke. “I feel like when it’s places that specialize in poke and boba, nine times out of 10, the quality of both is a little bit iffy.”
“We would like to put our best product forward for both of them, but we started as strictly just the poke shop,” Ting said. Due to the eatery’s longer history of serving poke, that will likely continue to be the shop’s focus, she added. Ting said that her Taiwanese heritage inspired her to add bubble tea to the menu to share with others.
“I can’t promise if it’s going to be the best or anything blow-away compared to all the wonderful options we have in the state,” Ting said. “But it’s going to be our take on it … and I hope people will love it.”
