Aloha: Zippy’s diner opens first Las Vegas location

The woman was waiting in the takeout line at Zippy’s, the Hawaiian diner chain, about two hours before its 10:10 a.m. opening on Tuesday in southwest Las Vegas. The citywide anticipation of the first Zippy’s outside Hawaii, anticipation 4½ years in the making, distilled itself to this individual moment of hankering — for Korean fried chicken and chili over rice (served the Hawaiian way) and flaky coconut turnovers.

But then members of the Zippy’s crew emerged to hand out bottled water and samples of malasadas, the deep-fried sugar-covered doughnuts of Hawaii, to the 50 or so people in the takeout line. It wasn’t a Surf Pac (Spam, fried chicken, teriyaki beef), but it was something.

Over at the dine-in line, about 200 strong, Fani Leilua held her 2-year-old grandson, Legend, who napped in her arms. Leilua, Legend and five other members of the family traveled overnight from Salt Lake City for the launch, pulling up just before 4 a.m. They were the first people to arrive, Leilua said.

“When you go to Hawaii, Zippy’s is the first stop and the last stop you make,” she said, recalling previous visits.

It’s a six-hour drive from Salt Lake to Vegas for chili and chicken plate lunch, but that’s a lot easier than a seven-hour flight.

Paiute history meets Hawaiian tradition

Zippy’s CEO Jason Higa, whose family started Zippy’s in 1966, offered remarks to begin the opening ceremony. He made a point of acknowledging the ancestral Paiute land upon which the new Zippy’s sits (7095 Badura Avenue, at Montessouri Street).

“To the original inhabitants of this land, we send aloha,” Higa said.

Kordell Kekoa, a kahu (Hawaiian priest), blessed the property, using a ti leaf to sprinkle rainwater that had been stored since it fell on Oahu 25 years ago, Kekoa said.

Benny Tso, of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, joined Higa and board members of Zippy’s to mingle soil from Paiute land in downtown Las Vegas, from Paiute Snow Mountain and from Oahu.

Instead of a ribbon-cutting, a garland of precious maile leaves was untied to mark the opening, in keeping with Hawaiian tradition. Hula dances closed out the ceremony just as the clock reached 10:10 a.m.

A central kitchen for future stores

Fani Leilua, the Salt Lake City matriarch, and her family were first in the door (just as they had been first in line). At least 100 staffers (out of 200 hired) wearing orchid leis clapped and offered alohas as folks streamed in past the pastry case toward the dining room.

The restaurant seats about 200. A black-and-white photograph of the original Zippy’s, on South King Street in downtown Honolulu, commands one wall. The new Zippy’s, at 7,000 square feet, ranks among the largest locations in the chain, CEO Higa said, with “a central kitchen for this store and future stores in Vegas.”

Besides the Leilua family, Vegas residents Michael Russell, Jan Dale and Tifanie Silver were among the first to be seated (they’d arrived about 5 a.m., they said). Dale and Silver had met only that morning.

“We’re line friends,” she said.

Then Dale turned to the menu. Chili was in her future.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram and @ItsJLW on X.