Slap a hand-drawn poster reading “Fresh Spring Rolls” on the front window of a storefront on Madison’s east side, and they will come.
True Garlynd, the owner of Roll Foods, discovered this last May and hasn’t taken the sign down since. Roll Foods operates out of the former Banzo Shuk prep kitchen at 1151 Williamson St., now called Seven Nights Grab N Grocery.
Roll Foods currently has a single menu item: A gargantuan monster of an Asian-infused fresh spring roll ($7.50). Wrapped in rice paper and portable, this Vietnamese staple can adapt to the seasons and expand with fillings. Fresh Cool Drinks, a smoothie cart run by Tuy Anongdeth, helped popularize this massive variation on a fresh Southeast Asian food over 17 years on the Library Mall.
A fresh spring roll at Roll Foods is stuffed with a chicken, shredded cabbage, avocado, cucumber, bell peppers, rice noodles and sauce.
Garlynd stuffs each roll with cabbage, cilantro, iceberg lettuce, jalapenos, avocado, cucumbers and rice noodles. This colossus also comes with the option of adding a protein (chicken, beef, or tofu) for an extra $2.
“I tell people it’s a pound of food — it fills you up,” Garlynd said. (A quick weight check revealed that Garlynd is actually underselling the weight of his wrap by about a quarter of a pound.)
True Garlynd slices avocados at Roll Foods, which serves just one item: a giant spring roll.
The Grab N Grocery storefront is run by Garlynd’s brother, Ace Lynn-Miller, and his partner, Allison “A-Train” Train. Imagine the Dane County Farmers Market in micro, scaled down to an indoor space about a few hundred square feet in size.
The small market has a homey vibe and is filled with local meats, cheeses, eggs, soap, earrings and fresh baked goods. Miller and A-Train have made their Let It Ride cold brew coffee in the kitchen that takes up most of the Quonset hut in the back for several years.
True Garlynd makes a fresh spring roll at Roll Foods.
When Banzo decided to move their operation, Lynn-Miller and A-Train decided it was the perfect time to take over the lease. To ease costs, created a defacto coworking space in the kitchen, and Garlynd, a veteran of Madison’s restaurant scene, seemed like a perfect addition.
Seven Nights Grab N’ Grocery features locally made food and goods on Williamson Street in Madison.
When he was a kid, Garlynd’s parents encouraged him to make his own lunches, giving him the gateway he needed to make, and eat, the combinations of flavors that fit his palate.
“It wasn’t complex,” Garlynd said. “But it got me into that mind of, well, if I want something tasty that I want to eat, I have to prepare it myself.”
After high school, Garlynd made it his mission to get a gig making sushi in town. He landed at Sushi Muramoto and spent three and a half years under the tutelage of executive chef Bee Khang, who became a bit of a mentor.
“He had a great attitude about food, and a great work ethic,” Garlynd said. “He made staff meal every day, and he would take one or two hours to do it during the middle of the day. That was a great way to try a bunch of different flavors.”
Fresh spring rolls are available from Roll Foods, which put up a sign in May and has been advertising on social media.
Garlynd’s philosophy at Roll Foods prizes simplicity.
“It’s about having good ingredients and then respecting them and showcasing them without too many extra bells and whistles,” he said. “Not an outrageous transformation of ingredients, but you just take care of them.”
Fresh spring rolls from Roll Foods are stuffed with shredded cabbage, avocado, cucumber, bell peppers, rice noodles and sauce.
Take for example the fresh slaw mix that comprises the solid crunch in the roll. “I soak the slaw and then I dry it and that’s how you get like a nice crisp flavor without having too much cabbage funk going on,” he said.
Since Roll Foods opened, he’s had to double his output of that slaw from 20 to 40 pounds a week.
Simple flavors brings customers back week after week. And social media helps — a TikTok featuring the roll from August has received more than 300,000 views from all over the country. As a kid who grew up in the neighborhood, Garlynd now finds himself a steward of it.
“One of the great things about this community is that they value things that I think are worth valuing. They care about having fresh ingredients, eating healthy,” said Garlynd. “I’m just happy that I was kind of able to have this opportunity to have an idea and to have it be so well-received.”