The bright yellow Locos Only food truck—the one with the anthropomorphized pineapple on the side—has made appearances at East Bay breweries, events and wineries since 2018. Donald Kubisch and Amy Griffith’s first culinary project gained momentum after a successful 2014 pop-up at Faction Brewing in Alameda. “I found out how much fun I had doing it there, and eventually we bought the food truck to do our own thing,” Kubisch recalled during a phone interview. As the couple built up an enthusiastic following for their Hawaiian-Mexican fusion concept, they kept in mind the goal of finding a brick-and-mortar location of their own. In September, they realized it with the opening of Shaka Shack. Growing up in Hawaii, Kubisch’s parents owned a restaurant. And, more recently, he helped with the launch of Oscar’s Grill, a restaurant on Bay Farm Island. “We wanted to ease in with the food truck, to give that a go,” Kubisch said. “That was the way to get our foot in the door and to get our names out there.” At first, he opened the Locos Only truck on the weekends at Alameda Point, until the business started to pick up catering gigs. “And then earlier this year, we connected with the owner of the Little House Cafe property and he offered us the opportunity to open there,” he said. After he and his wife got the food truck up and running, Kubisch, for the most part, ran the food truck on his own at events. Brick-and-mortar restaurants, however, are a team sport. “You’re bringing the customers to you versus finding the customers,” he said. “If you want to succeed, you need people you can rely on to make sure everybody who walks through the door leaves happy.” The couple’s new restaurant has revitalized the Blanding Avenue location where the Little House Cafe closed in 2022. A wooden shaka hand sign, painted yellow, now sits in the front garden where the wicked witch’s feet used to jut out towards the sidewalk. The refurbished interior walls are also painted a cheerful yellow, but the new menu departs from Locos Only’s to focus on “Hawaiian style eats and treats.” Chef Kubisch was born and raised in Kauai; his mother on the Island of Hawaii. The family recipes he cooks were handed down to him from his grandparents’ generation. They differ from Hawaiian barbecue franchises that customers might be more familiar with, such as Ono and L&L, because his family made these recipes in their Hawaiian kitchens. His mother now even works alongside Kubisch at Shaka Shack. She’s responsible for the potato macaroni salad and the pineapple upside-down cake. In November, Shaka Shack started serving a new item made with ube, or purple yam—a gluten-free mochi waffle. That’s in addition to regular ube waffles, ube pancakes, ube syrup, ube malasadas and ube lattes, hot or iced. Kubisch describes the flavor of the yam as “sweet yet subtle.” But he also told me that purple is his favorite color. “You open the malasada or waffle or pancake, and you see it inside the dough,” he said. “It makes you smile looking at that nice purple.”   Ube hasn’t always been a go-to ingredient for Kubisch. It was actually Griffith’s idea to use it in a holiday pie when they were still operating out of the Locos Only truck. “Then it became pancakes and waffles every weekend for the kids and my mom,” he said. Since 2019, they’ve continued to make holiday pies through the end of the year. Along with ube, pumpkin and sweet potato pies, Kubisch also makes a “crunch” version of each one. Those he tops with a baked layer of pecans, almonds and walnuts. Kubisch and Griffith have also started a new tradition at the restaurant, called “Sundays at the Shack.” Griffith’s father, a musician, plays outside on the patio most Sundays. Since his father-in-law started performing, several other musicians have approached them to ask if they could play there. “Weather permitting, we do want someone to play every Sunday for the customers while they enjoy their meals,” Kubisch said. Shaka Shack, open 8:30am to 3pm, closed Wed. 2300 Blanding Ave., Alameda. 510.305.8754. IG:@shakashackalameda.