CHOPPA CHANGES

Owner David Chen is a busy guy these days. He opened PokeMee in Hollister Village Plaza last year, he opened Choppa Ice Cream in the same area last week, and he has two more restaurants in the pipeline: Choppa Poke coming to 716 State Street, offering Thai-style ice cream and Poke in the former home of Mac cosmetics, and 212 Hotpot, a Chinese restaurant opening soon at 6533 Trigo Road in the former home of Kol’s Cafe and Crushcakes. Chen tells me that due to a name dispute he will be changing the name of his PokeMee restaurant in Goleta to Choppa Poke, matching the title of his future downtown venue.