Hawkers Asian Street Food pivots to growth with new capital and internal promotion goals
Following a 2025 capital infusion from Savory Fund, the 15-unit chain is shifting from survival mode to expansion, signaling a trade-wide emphasis on internal talent pipelines to sustain full-service restaurant growth.
“But I think the fundamentals are there. I think we have a lot of the same team members in play that have opened restaurants before with us, and so there’s a lot of travel knowledge that’s still in the system.”
Hawkers Asian Street Food is shifting from a defensive operational posture to active expansion following a capital infusion from Savory Fund in June 2025. The 15-unit Orlando-based chain will open its first new location in over two years this fall in Franklin, Tennessee. Chief Executive Officer Kaleb Harrell stated the brand is moving past a year and a half of "survival mode" after backing out of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The company is now prioritizing an offensive growth mindset, supported by a restructured board of directors. The new board includes Fogo de Chão CEO Barry McGowan, Savory Fund cofounder Andrew K. Smith, and Savory Fund principal Taylor DeHart. First Watch CEO Chris Tomasso also advises the leadership team on scaling operations. To support this volume growth, Hawkers is targeting a workforce model where 50 percent of salaried team members are internal promotes. Harrell aims to eliminate the use of external general managers for new locations by 2027, addressing a critical labor pipeline challenge in the full-service sector. The operational pivot extends to the supply chain and product mix with the brand’s first full menu redesign in five years. Harrell described a "barbell approach" balancing high-volume staples like pad thai with lower-volume, high-credibility items such as Nasi Lemak. This menu strategy targets behavior-based guest personas rather than strict demographic brackets, aiming to capture culturally curious diners. The chain currently reports $4.6 million in average unit volumes and a 4.8-star guest satisfaction score across its seven-state footprint. THE APEX GASTRONOMY CHRONICLE observes that Hawkers’ trajectory highlights a necessary correction in the full-service restaurant trade. Operators are recognizing that sustainable unit growth is unachievable without first securing the internal labor infrastructure and supply chain flexibility to support it.
