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By Lisa Abraham
Beacon Journal food writer
Published on Sunday, Mar 16, 2008
Probably not nearly as much as they know about making money.
Ken Oppenheimer and Jon Roller, two former mortgage lenders, are seeing their infant business, Sushi on the Roll, rolling right along thanks to their love of sushi and their knowledge of the corporate world.
Their goal is simple: ''We want to bring sushi to the masses,'' Oppenheimer said.
They aren't shy about admitting there are no Japanese, classically trained sushi chefs in their kitchen. Instead, a 27-year-old Pennsylvania Culinary Arts School dropout is their chef.
Nathan Flossie learned to roll sushi as a student in Pittsburgh by accident. He went to a Japanese restaurant to apply for a job as a hibachi cook only to find the job had been filled before he got there. They were still looking for help rolling sushi, so Flossie took that job instead and found his passion.
''Sushi is my life,'' Flossie said, while showing off an assortment of spicy crab roll, California roll, and spicy tuna roll.
For Oppenheimer, 34, of Copley Township, and Roller, 41, of Medina, the idea for a sushi business was born out of the right confluence of circumstances.
Co-workers at the former Novastar Mortgage in Independence, they saw a steady stream of deli trays, boxed lunches, and other standard catering fare pass through their conference rooms.
Two sushi lovers, they were constantly asking for it for lunch, only to be told by support staff that no sushi delivery was available. And besides, not everyone wanted to eat raw fish.
Then last August, their circumstances changed when Novastar went out of business, and both found themselves unemployed with two months' severance pay in their pockets.
They toyed with the idea of opening up a sushi restaurant, but believed there were better ways of getting sushi into the corporate world. They sat down, made out a business plan and with an investment of more than $40,000 of their own money, they rented a kitchen, hired a chef, and literally started rolling.
Their goal, initially, was for office workers to recognize them as ''the sushi guys.''
They would package up about 100 various sushi rolls and go from office to office selling lunch.
The reactions they found were what they expected — a lot of turned up noses.
''We'd say, 'You don't like raw fish, do you?' '' Oppenheimer said. ''So we'd say, 'Do you like crab or shrimp? Try this.' ''
After a few times of passing out free samples, most customers were convinced.
''We'd spend 60 to 65 percent of our time explaining what sushi is, and what sushi means. Sixty to 70 percent of it is fully cooked,'' Oppenheimer said. ''But people don't want to ask . . . We want to bring it to the masses and eliminate the fear of it that it's all raw and scary, that whole aura of sushi.''
Traditional Japanese sushi is steamed rice with cooked or raw fish, shellfish, vegetables, or a combination thereof, rolled inside seaweed sheets called nori.
The fish, such as tuna, is often served raw, but shellfish is cooked to prevent foodborne illness.
Customers told their friends, word spread, and now six months later, Sushi on the Roll serves about 30 companies each day, selling about 400 rolls a day.
Their sushi rolls are priced between $5.25 and $6.50, making them competitive with a fast-food lunch. They take orders online at http://www.sushiontherollonline.com, they deliver, and they provide catering trays for corporate lunches.
Roller and Oppenheimer didn't stop there.
They set their sights on corporate cafeterias and lunch counters. Their sales pitch always included a lot of free samples and a lot of education about sushi, particularly as a healthy lunch alternative — a message that resonated with executives concerned about rising health-care costs, Roller said.
So far, they're in corporate cafeterias at Sterling Jewelry in Akron, the Westfield Group in Medina County, and FedEx Custom Critical in Green, as well as Akron General Medical Center's cafe and main cafeteria. They also have a contract to be at FirstEnergy's new West Akron building when it opens.
Probably their biggest coup came when they convinced Akron's West Point Market, the mecca of local foodies, to sell their rolls.
West Point owner Rick Vernon said the store had been searching for a long time for a sushi supplier.
''We tried to make it ourselves, but that's not really our area of expertise. We were looking for something fresh and wonderful,'' he said.
When Oppenheimer and Roller approached, Vernon said he liked what he tasted and saw. Sushi on the Roll makes their rolls with the rice on the outside, called uramaki, a style considered specifically American because the seaweed is hidden inside. The rolls are bigger as a result and more appealing to a Midwestern clientele who might not be as familiar with sushi and might shy away from rolls that appear too exotic.
The sushi has been well received. ''We have a lot of customers who never tried sushi who are actually buying it now. We're selling out of it in our cafe and we also offer catering trays,'' Vernon said.
By the end of April, Sushi on the Roll expects to open Sushi on the Lake, a retail store in the back of an office complex at 3925 Embassy Parkway in Bath Township.
The move will save them the expense of having to rent kitchens and will provide them with an official headquarters. Smack in the middle of a whopping corporate park, the location also provides them with a whole new corporate customer.
''There's got to be 2,000 or 3,000 people who work back here,'' Oppenheimer said.
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
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