By AMANDA FARINOS

Juan Cruz is an animated guy. Sit at the counter of his Stuart restaurant, the casual Aloha Cafe, and he will chat you up with all sorts of stories, keeping you company while you watch him cook.

Three years after finishing culinary school, Cruz was surprised by a letter from Hawaii, and learned he had a half-brother who’d been searching for Cruz for years. The families met in Hawaii, and the brothers became close friends.

That trip, and Cruz’s experiences with his long-lost brother, inspired him to open the cafe, a place where he serves breakfast and lunch dishes with influences from Hawaii and Kentucky, where Cruz was raised.

Here you can have biscuits and gravy or fried rice for breakfast, or experience something of a Southern/island fusion with the Loko Moko ($7): a mound of rice and hamburger patties topped with fried eggs and sausage gravy.

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