L&L Operator Strikes It Rich
He will get $1 million after the winning $266 million ticket was bought at his L.A. eatery
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 06, 2010
Eddie Flores, the Hawaii founder of the L&L restaurant chain, always knew he had a winning recipe for chicken katsu, but recently found out that the Japanese-style crispy fried chicken strips are literally worth millions.
The quest for the onolicious local favorite brought a husband and wife into the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Pico Rivera, Calif., where they purchased a Mega Millions lottery ticket worth $266 million, the eighth-largest jackpot in the history of the game. Their winning ticket, which was picked at random, matched all six numbers drawn in Tuesday's multistate game -- 9, 21, 31, 36 and 43 with 8 as the Mega number, the Associated Press reported. It was a 1 in 175 million win.
As a result, franchise owner Danny He will take home a cool million when he gets his cut of the winning ticket and Flores will net tons of free publicity for his local-style restaurants.
Someone bought a lottery ticket and won one of the biggest jackpots in history.
"Chicken katsu, that's the ticket," said Flores, who opened the first L&L Drive-In in 1976 and launched the 200-store chain in 1988.
The couple, who have not been identified yet, almost missed their chance to become the nation's newest mega millionaires, he said.
"She wanted KFC and he wanted chicken katsu," Flores said.
While chicken katsu is a popular dish with L&L customers, who tend to hail from the islands, Flores said yesterday that lottery tickets at He's store were outpacing plate lunch sales.
As news of the big win has spread, the phones at He's franchise and at the L&L headquarters have been ringing off the hook, Flores said.
"We've never had so much publicity," Flores said. "If you type L&L into Google, you'll get almost 10 pages of links. This is good for us, good for Hawaii and good for the brand."
He, who has ties to Hawaii, barely had time to pause for a phone interview and was hard to hear over the crowd gathered to buy tickets in his store.
"Of course, it's hard to believe," he said.
"I feel so lucky."
Flores said He's brother-in-law, T.K. Chan, who owns the Royal Kitchen in downtown Honolulu and formerly owned the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue, may not be feeling as lucky.
"He sold it to him about two years ago because he wanted to retire," he said. "If he had kept it, he would have made a million."
He's payout will be more than 16 times greater than the average gross sales at an L&L franchise, Flores said.
The average L&L franchise owner generates about $60,000 a month in gross sales, he said.
"It would take a much longer time to make that kind of money," Flores said.
While He's thrilled by the win, he will not count his chicken katsu until the prize is claimed.
"I'm not making plans until I get the money," he said.
But he told the Associated Press that the money will go toward his son's college education and to pay some debt.
While there has been a lot of buzz about the winners, the Associated Press reported that they have not come forward to claim their prize.
"Until we have someone come in who has that ticket, we do not have an official winner," Sacramento, Calif.-based lottery spokeswoman Cathy Doyle Johnston told the Associated Press.
However, KTLA-TV assignment manager David Reese said a newsroom employee working the graveyard shift at the Los Angeles station called him at 2:30 a.m. to report that she and her husband have the winning ticket and to keep her name a secret until she's ready to step forward.
The winner has a year to turn in the ticket, then 60 days to tell lottery officials how he or she wants the money, she said.
It can be paid in 26 equal payments of $10.2 million or in a lump sum of about $165 million, minus federal taxes, Johnston said.
Hawaii residents that want a piece of the action will have to travel to the mainland. The game, which is played in 38 states and the District of Columbia, is not offered in Hawaii.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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