Rock N’ Roll Sushi Expanding in Arkansas With Four New Locations

Rock N’ Roll Sushi (Provided)

Four new Rock N’ Roll Sushi restaurants are under development in Arkansas, with one in Jonesboro set to open in May, and one in Hot Springs expected to open this summer. A third is planned for Fort Smith, while a fourth will be located in northwest Arkansas.

That’s the word from Chris Kramolis, chief development officer for Rock N’ Roll Sushi, a 73-restaurant chain founded in 2010 in Mobile, Alabama, by the husband-and-wife team of Lance and Gerri Mach Hallmark and now headquartered in Destin, Florida. The chain currently has six restaurants in Arkansas.

Kramolis is also a Rock N’ Roll Sushi franchisee, owning, with brothers Jason and Chris Alley, the two restaurants in Little Rock, one in North Little Rock and one in Conway. The Alleys also own a Rock N’ Roll Sushi in Benton and the sixth Rock N’ Roll Sushi is in Fayetteville.

Kramolis is a veteran restaurateur, opening, in 2002, the first Tropical Smoothie in Little Rock and developing that brand until selling his interests in 2017. He began looking into other restaurant opportunities when a friend introduced him to the Rock N’ Roll Sushi chain.

“Sushi sounded complicated to me,” Kramolis said. “I came from smoothies and sandwiches and wraps.”

But his tour of Rock N’ Roll Sushi locations in Alabama led him to the realization that “they are bringing sushi to everyday, regular Americans that it really hasn’t been marketed to,” he said.

“It’s not been very approachable,” Kramolis said. But Rock N’ Roll Sushi’s menu includes baked and fried rolls, “so if you wouldn’t eat raw [fish], it was a good way for you to experience the food first and then maybe you come around to that” more traditional Japanese sushi.

The chain’s menu also features various seafood salads and hibachi offerings.

Kramolis also appreciated the “rock ’n’ roll atmosphere, which was extremely approachable, where you felt like, OK, if I come in and bring my kids, I don’t feel like I’m disruptive. You’re in this very casual environment.”

Kramolis said he loves a photo one of his business partners sent him showing “six construction workers at a table eating sushi together at lunch.” That, he said, exemplifies the welcoming nature of Rock N’ Roll Sushi.

Kramolis opened his first Rock N’ Roll Sushi restaurant at 12800 Chenal Parkway in 2020, the COVID year, but that was not the disaster it could have been. That’s because “sushi was huge for takeout during COVID because most people can’t make sushi at home,” he said. “It was a treat. And during COVID we all wanted a treat. We wanted some sense of normalcy.”

He and his partners opened their second Little Rock location, at 1224 Main St., in August 2020.

In Arkansas, Cody McPherson and Aaron Duty have signed a three-store franchise agreement, Kramolis said. They’ll open their first Rock N’ Roll Sushi at 2411 Race St. in Jonesboro in May, he said, and will then start looking for restaurant real estate in Fort Smith, with a third restaurant planned for northwest Arkansas.

McPherson and Duty have franchise experience with Crumbl Cookies and Potbelly Sandwich Shop, Kramolis said.

Blaine Runyan and his father, Aaron, are locating a Rock N’ Roll Sushi at 4328 Central Ave. in Hot Springs, with a projected opening in the summer.

The average size of a Rock N’ Roll Sushi restaurant is between 1,800 SF and 2,200 SF, and they typically seat between 50 and 70 diners, Kramolis said. About 40% of a restaurant’s sales are takeout, he said.

Arkansas is one of the best markets in the Rock N’ Roll Sushi franchise, Kramolis said. “Our average unit volume in Arkansas is a bit over $1.5 million,” he said. That compares with an average of $1.16 million for the system.