Mormons love this growing Utah chain. So does Meridian. A 2nd restaurant opens Saturday

You don’t have to be a churchgoer to enjoy a borderline religious experience with a plate of Hawaiian food.

But it doesn’t hurt.

Just ask Mormon customers scarfing down teriyaki steak at Mo’ Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food, a Utah chain erupting like a small volcano.

If you feel like you’ve read those words before, well — it’s because I first wrote those sentences in 2019, when Mo’ Bettahs made its debut in the Boise area at 3233 E. Louise Drive in Meridian.

The restaurant brand, which has marketed itself successfully to the LDS community, will unveil its second Treasure Valley store Saturday at 1201 W. Chinden Blvd. — yep, also in Meridian. That will be the fourth Idaho restaurant; Mo’ Bettahs also has stores in Twin Falls and Ammon.

After a 5:30 p.m. ribbon cutting with the Meridian Chamber of Commerce, the grand opening will happen from 6 to 10 p.m. Mo’ Bettahs will be closed the next day — its restaurants are always closed Sundays — then reopen Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Those will be the normal business hours, Mondays through Saturdays, starting next week.

Deal alert! Visitors will score a buy-one-get-one-free bargain on any mini-plate purchase Monday. (To be clear, Dec. 5 only.)

Launched in 2008, Mo’ Bettahs recently has ballooned to 39 stores.

And if you’ve read this all before, feel free to stop now. Otherwise, here’s the scoop (of rice) … .

Serving fast-casual feasts with solid portions, Mo’ Bettahs aims to “fill your opu (stomach) with ono (delicious) island food.” The fast-casual restaurant’s specialty is plate lunches, made up of seasoned meat, rice and macaroni salad.

But the key to Mo’ Bettahs’ popularity isn’t just the food. It’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Utah’s influential religious group has strong ties to Polynesia, as noted by The New York Times in an interesting profile about Mo’ Bettahs in 2018.

Founders Kalani and Kimo Mack grew up in Hawaii. After moving to Utah, the brothers opened Mo’ Bettahs with “no experience, no business plan and only the money they had saved from driving buses in Honolulu,” according to the Times.

As novice restaurateurs, they stumbled onto their target audience. After Kalani Mack created an online profile for Mo’ Bettahs, he “soon noticed that there were many Facebook groups for Mormons who had served missions in Polynesia. He started promoting the restaurant through those channels.”

“Mo’ Bettahs was suddenly mobbed with former missionaries,” the Times article continues, “eager to give their families and friends a taste of the place where they had spent their most formative years. Mormons, the Macks quickly realized, were their greatest marketing tool.”

They also realized that they could grow the brand. Mo’ Bettahs now is partnered with Utah private equity firm Savory Restaurant Fund. The restaurant chain has locations not just in Utah and Idaho nowadays, but also in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and Kansas.

Plenty of Idahoans who have visited family in Utah are familiar with Mo’ Bettahs. If you scanned comments on social media a few years ago, you discovered that Treasure Valley residents had been urging the chain to expand this direction.

Customers from all backgrounds should be able to find something to like. The protein options on Mo’ Bettahs’ menu include teriyaki chicken or steak, pulehu chicken, katsu chicken, kalua pig and shrimp tempura.

The food offers reasonable bang for your buck. Kalua pig, for example, costs $3.99 for four ounces and one sauce cup. The best seller, Regular Teriyaki Chicken, goes for $13.59. It includes “three pieces of chicken marinated and drizzled with our housemade Teri Sauce, served on a bed of cabbage with two scoops of rice, one salad choice, and two sauce cups.”

Mo’ Bettahs also offers catering. So, dig in, Idaho.

“Meridian has embraced us with open arms and made us feel at home, so it only made sense to entrench our roots here with a second location,” Mo’ Bettahs CEO Rob Ertmann explained in a press release. “We can’t wait to celebrate with the community during the grand opening and spread the word about our delicious Hawaiian dishes and excellent customer service. We love welcoming new guests to our ohana (family).”

Online: mobettahs.com.

This story was originally published November 30, 2022 at 5:15 PM.