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How Do You Roll
Custom Sushi
Yuen Yung, BBA ’96
Locations nationwide
Mess with a sushi aficionado’s
tuna roll and
apparently the claws
come out.
Just ask Yuen Yung, who received
“sushi hate mail” for desecrating the
ancient culinary art with the menu
offerings at his restaurant chain, How
Do You Roll, which lets patrons customize
their own sushi, including
using non-traditional ingredients such
as strawberries and grilled chicken.
“Sushi snobs were like, ‘Whoa, you
guys are blasphemous!’ ” says Yung,
not overly bothered by the outrage.
The general public seems to be more
forgiving, and the fast-casual chain is
taking off. How Do You Roll broke even
six months after it opened in October
2008 and has been profitable ever since.
Its headquarters are in Austin, but Yung
has sold 40 franchises, with 15 locations
open in Texas, California, Arizona, Florida,
and North Carolina.
It’s a surprising career turn for the
former wealth manager who swore
off the restaurant business after growing
up working in his parents’ Chinese
eatery in Houston. But one day on his
lunch break, in search of something
other than fast food, he bought premade
grocery store sushi. He was
underwhelmed.
“I thought, this is like dating somebody
I don’t like, but I guess it’s better than
nobody,” Yung says. The lack of availability
of quickly prepared, high-quality
sushi got him thinking about a business
concept. When his brother, a sushi chef,
came to Yung ready for a change in his
career, they decided to return to the family
business and open How Do You Roll
Yung realizes that even though at
times he hated working in his parents’
restaurant, the experience bonded
his family together. And now his own
family is getting in on the act. His wife
plans the company’s annual franchisee
conference, and when his 9-yearold
son wanted a Nintendo 3DS last
summer, he earned the money for it by
busing tables, just like Yung used to do.
“But he’s better at it than I was,”
Yung says. “He quickly learned the
power of taking care of people and
then they might tip you. He still asks
when he can go back to work.”
Signature dish: Custom rolls, so
it’s different for everybody.
Biggest challenge of the
restaurant business: Managing
growth and balancing patience
with attention to detail
Company philosophy: “We’re not
a sushi company serving people. We’re
a people company serving sushi,” Yung
says. “The thing we sell is freedom of
expression, and we want to make the
world better one stomach at a time.”
Favorite Austin hot spot:
Lady Bird Lake, running and walking
with the kids
Funky Chicken
Like a Vegan
3 Alarm
mango tango
Yuen Yung, BBA ‘96
courtesy How Do You Roll
“Sushi snobs
were like, ‘Whoa,
you guys are
blasphemous!’”
Crunch daddy
20 OPEN SPRING 2013 www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu www.today.mccombs.utexas.edu SPRING 2013 OPEN 21