Aloha Cones Flies in Fresh Fish From Hawaii for Its Poke Bowls

Denver got a new option for poke when Aloha Cones debuted in March inside the Denver Health building at 601 Broadway — an unlikely destination for good eats that's also home to Urban Cafe, which dishes up Persian specialties.

Aloha Cones was founded in 2013 by Aaron Kumura on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where it's a well-known option for poke — it was awarded Best Poke Bowl by Honolulu magazine in 2016. It was also the first eatery to use vinegared sushi rice as its base — thus its motto, “Sushi in a bowl" — though it originally served in paper cones (hence the name), as Kumura had an overstock of paper cones from sharing his building with a snow cone shop.

After Kumura passed away in 2019, couple Michelle Parker and Daniel Miller, along with a group of their friends, wanted to preserve his legacy. Despite having no hospitality experience, they purchased Aloha Cones and have kept the business going in Hawaii.

In August 2023, Parker and Miller were visiting a friend in Denver when they drove by a space that had previously been home to a Thump Coffee. It was available to lease, and Miller couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “His nickname is Daniel Deals,” laughs Phillip Phomphakdy, an old friend of the couple. “He’ll buy anything — a brand-new car, an old car, a house. He’s the kind of guy that thinks, ‘I can do it,’ and he can. I never doubt the guy.”
Parker and Miller, who live on Oahu, enlisted Phomphakdy's help to run the Denver outpost. It was a drastic life change, but it came at a welcome time for the Thai chef — he'd recently gone through a divorce and was experiencing the post-COVID slump in the Honolulu tourist and hospitality industries.

So he packed up his bags, flew to Denver and debuted Aloha Cones eight months ago. From the beginning, Parker and Miller were clear: They wanted both locations to stay true to Kumura’s recipes and philosophy of using high-quality ingredients in the traditional Hawaiian style. “Poke” means “to slice” or “cut crosswise” in Hawaiian, and until the ’90s, grocery stores and roadside restaurants only offered two flavors of the dish: onion and/or limu (seaweed).

However, modern-day poke bowls can resemble a sundae with a plethora of toppings. On that spectrum, Kumura’s recipes fall closer to the traditional version, with a focus on fresh fish and culturally relevant toppings such as pickled cucumbers, crab salad, limu and daikon. “We don’t have corn; we don’t have tomatoes. The other day some lady asked me for croutons,” laughs Phomphakdy. “We keep it simple with sesame, salt, sesame oil and that’s all.”

The star of the dish is the fresh fish, which Aloha Cones flies in fresh from Hawaii twice a week. “I call [the fish supplier] on Monday, they go to auction Tuesday morning, pack it and fly it. I drive to United Cargo at the airport and the fish is fresh, packed in ice. I’ll bring it back and cut it up,” explains Phomphakdy. Right now, the shop goes through four ahi tunas, each weighing 90 to 100 pounds, and one or two whole salmon per week.
Having fish delivered twice a week ensures the product is fresh. “A lot of people still have the landlocked comment. ... They’re scared to eat fish [in Colorado]. I tell them, ‘Just try it; you don’t like it, then spit it out,’” says Phomphakdy. “I can understand the fear because it’s horrible to get food poisoning, but we’re serving fresh fish. I want you to taste the freshness — that’s why we don’t mix in sauce until you order.” Aloha Cones also imports its limu and tortilla chips from Hawaii.

Its bestsellers are shoyu ahi and the spicy ahi poke bowl. Pro tip: Order the two-choice combination bowl to try both. The former is the simple, straightforward and traditional preparation of poke with shoyu, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and white and green onions. For the latter, Aloha Cones dices the ahi tuna before mixing in spicy sauce so that the sauce doesn’t slide off the large cubes of tuna but instead infuses the fish. That bowl is topped with masago, unagi sauce and green onion. 

All bowls can be served over sushi rice or salad. Other options include poke nachos and limited specials such as air-fried basil pesto ahi belly.

Since opening, Hawaiian transplants have flocked to the location for a taste of home. While we were visiting, the other two customers at the shop said they found the place after it was highly recommended by the Hawaiians Living in Colorado Facebook group.

For transplants and locals alike, a bite of Aloha Cone’s poke bowls offers a culinary trip outside of landlocked Colorado to the sunnier shores of Hawaii by honoring Kumura’s legacy of traditional, fresh and delicious poke.

Aloha Cones is located on the first floor of the Denver Health building at 601 Broadway and is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, visit alohaconesdenver.com.