FSR November 2022

OntheRise BY BEN COLEY

TheEveryman’sSushi Rock N Roll Sushi owes much of its growth to an often-overlooked consumer group.

AFTER 15 YEARS as a Tropica l Smoothie Café franchisee, Chris Kramo lis was looking for the next big thing in the restaurant industry, and Rock NRoll Sushi just wasn’t it—at least, not initially. Long before becoming CEO of the chain, Kramolis remembers a friend telling him about the concept, and then learning it was based out of Alabama—a market that typically doesn’t share sen tences with the raw seafood cuisine. “I said that makes no sense,” Kramolis says. “If I’m not mistaken, you just said ‘sushi in Alabama.’ So we laughed about that, but really I was like no, I come from quick service anyway. I’mnot interested. That sounds like full-service sushi; it sounds hard.” But Kramolis’ partner was perse verant and kept bringing Rock N Roll Sushi to his attention. Eventually, the two were stuck in the Nashville, Ten nessee, airport, and Kramolis relented on his skepticism. The food cost and topline revenue figures intrigued him. As his curiosity grew, he began driving by locations in smaller Alabama markets, and his head scratching slowly switched to an illuminated light bulb. Kramolis now understood the foun dation of Rock N Roll Sushi’s success. The concept is the brainchild of Gerri Mach and Lance Hallmark, the latter of whom didn’t eat sushi at first. Gerri Mach, of Asian descent, introduced it to

EST. 2010 FOUNDERS: Lance and Gerri Mach Hallmark HQ: Destin, Florida UNITS: 60 CUISINE: American style sushi

THE SHARP DRESSED ROLL FEATURES LOBSTER TAIL TEMPURA AND FRIED KRAB STICK, WITH SPICY MAYO AND EEL SAUCE.

him, and he promptly fell in love. Rock N Roll Sushi officially opened inMobile, Alabama, in 2010 and started franchis ing five years later. To lure potentially reluctant guests, the couple added rock ‘n’ roll music and memorabilia and built a crowd-pleaser of a menu, by “Americanizing” the sushi experience, as Kramolis puts it. The rolls are either baked or fried and named in an approachable manner, like the VIP Roll, British Invasion Roll, or Punk Rock Roll—no chopsticks required. But at the same time, there is a section for the tra ditionalists, with nigiri and sashimi. Sushi mixes 65 percent and hibachi accounts for 15–20 percent of sales. “These guys started marketing sushi to people nobody was marketing sushi to,” Kramolis says. “It was either a high

end sushi place where that’s the cus tomer you’re going after, or it was very traditional and it wasn’t really approach able to regular Americans. They were sushi-curious, but they really weren’t invited to the game. That’s what I really picked up on.” Kramolis opened two franchise units in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he used to operate his Tropical Smoothie loca tions. He figured if the concept worked in Alabama, it had to work there, as well. His assumption was correct, and both units thrived during Covid’s early pres sures. Within 75 days of opening the first restaurant, he took advantage of an available second-generation space in Little Rock’s downtown entertainment district to open another store. Kramolis relayed his triumphs to

ROCK N’ ROLL SUSHI

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