L&L Drive-Inn will expand to China, opening its first franchised outlet in Fumen, about an hour from Hong Kong, according to L&L co-founder Eddie Flores.

Fumen has a population of about 800,000, and because it’s not Hawaii or the mainland U.S., “the L&L concept has to be drastically changed in order to be successful,” Flores said.

The name will be L&L Hawaiian BBQ, instead of “Barbecue,” and instead of beverage cups that say “Hawaii,” the cups will say “U.S.A.,” based on Flores’ conversations with several people during his market-studying trips there.

Hawaii franchisee Chang Li and a China-based partner will likely open in January in a new shopping center that also will include a McDonald’s, Flores said.

McDonald’s and KFC operate in China. KFCs serve noodles and rice soup in China, he said.

Hawaii McDonald’s locations are unusual in that they offer rice, Spam, Portuguese sausage and saimin. “One time they tried (to introduce) plate lunch,” Flores said. “Scared the heck out of me.”

The typical Hawaii plate featuring two scoops of rice, one scoop of mac salad and three pieces of meat atop cabbage “is not going to work” in China, said Flores.

Neither Flores nor the franchisees have finalized what the plates served to customers will look like, except they are likely to be heavy on rice and vegetables and slim on protein. “Maybe we’ll offer a selection of vegetables, just like a Korean restaurant.”

One thing he does know is that the restaurant cannot serve laulau in China. “Taro leaves are fed to pigs in China. We cannot serve pigs’ food to people,” he laughed.

The shopping center is “huge” and has movie theaters and offices, and is adjacent to a large park. One of the franchisees “told me there are 10,000 people in the park at night. He’s optimistic” that the shopping center and L&L will get lots of foot traffic, said Flores.

Just as happened on the mainland, if the L&L is successful in China, he expects copycats to start popping up.

An Ono Hawaiian BBQ chain has dozens of locations in the American West, for instance.

In China, “I saw Apple stores,” complete with the familiar bitten white apple, “but they’re not Apple stores.”

In China there is at least one KFC knockoff, which has identical interiors and in which employees wear identical uniforms.

He has registered and trademarked “everything under the sky,” as in the company name and similar names, in hopes of staking his brand’s claim in China, but similar efforts weren’t even completely successful in the U.S.

One copycat operation on the mainland had employees wearing uniforms identical to L&L’s, and the interiors also were identical, down to the posters, he said. Maintaining an iron grip on L&L’s branding, interiors and uniforms in China will be that much more difficult.

Elsewhere, the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Shibuya, Japan, which opened in June 2010, will reopen May 1 in a new location, after struggling with high lease rent and a three-story floor plan.

The new spot is “like 50 steps away” from the previous spot and, while off the main drag, is all on one level — and the franchisee will be paying one-third of his former $30,000 monthly rent.

The name and concept of the Shibuya L&L will change as well, to adjust to the market.

The new name will be L&L Hawaiian Barbecue Dining Cafe.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that our food is too close to Japanese food,” citing chicken katsu, barbecue chicken and the like. “It’s the same thing, other than loco moco,” he said. The Shibuya store will double its menu offerings to include fish or chicken tacos, desserts and Hawaiian coffee.

It will serve Western-style breakfasts in addition to serving lunch and dinner and cafe-style items — but it won’t try to be a Japanese-style coffeehouse, or “kissaten.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Waikiki store that opened five years ago as the first L&L Hawaiian Barbecue-branded location in Hawaii closed earlier this month. The new operator of the building, which serves as student housing, wanted to triple the rent, Flores said.

Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.