We’re going to be introducing new ways to save at our diner! Each month, we will introduce new ways to get 10% off your bill. For the month of May, we’re celebrating:

Mustache Mondays - Are you sporting a Dalí, a handlebar, or a Fu Manchu? Perhaps you’re just a Ron Burgundy enthusiast or a longtime Burt Reynolds fan. No matter what type of mustache adorns your top lip, get 10% off your bill when you show off your ‘stache at the diner!

Tattoo Tuesdays - Are you addicted to ink as much as you’re addicted to our sushi? Show off your tats for 10% off your bill!

Food Drive Fridays - We’re all about sushi for charity! Get 10% off your bill for bringing in canned goods or non-perishable food items; we’ll donate them to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas!

Isn’t it funny that you can spend a long day, answering to “the man,” with the same people day-in-and-day-out; yet when five o’clock rolls around, you couldn’t imagine unwinding with anyone else? Or maybe your co-workers blow and you run to gossip about them with your “real friends.”  

Either way, who wants to go home to laundry and dishes? 

No hour of the day is as magical as Happy Hour. It’s a time to sit and talk, or stand and laugh with other participants in the rat race of life. As owners of a dining establishment, we recognize the need to provide a place to congregate; a place diametrically different from the walls you stare at eight hours a day. 

This is why we offer a special Roll On Happy Hour menu Monday - Friday, with $1 off beer and wine, $5 Sake Bombs, and specials on traditional Nigiri as well as our own sushi fusion delights!

We live in a melting pot of creativity. This shouldn’t be news to anyone. Year-after-year, artists from different walks of life journey to the center of Texas seeking refuge from the boredom of normality. These artists hope to collect blessings from the muse so many call Austin. This coming together of talents is what gives Austin its sought-after “vibe.”

Austin music, can you define it? Most of us would say no, and we like to think it’s because we’re unimaginably unique and creative, but there’s another theory. Perhaps our diversity drives our style. We live here together now, but we started our existence in very different places, and we bring those very different experiences to life through art. Our vibe is a collaboration of experiences.

For musicians, experiences are put into a new sound; for writers it’s in a new voice; for painters it’s a new color; for foodies it’s in a new flavor. Original, fusion, alive – all things that define Austin, and all things that we encourage at Roll On Sushi Diner.

We talk a lot about fusion cuisine, but haven’t paid nearly enough respect to the original fusion art – which is music. Fusion by definition is the combination of two styles to create something totally new. Rock-and-roll is an excellent example, which electrified the 1950s with its combined blues, gospel and country sound, and opened the doors for the musicians we love today.

With the 2011 Austin City Limits heading its way towards us, we are excited to welcome our favorite musicians like:  Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Arcade Fire and Kanye West. These superstars, along with dozens of other artists, are going to rock the ATX. View the full lineup here - http://lineup.aclfestival.com/.

Remember to be safe at the festival, and if you are lucky enough to have a DD, head up Burnet road for some yummy traditional and fusion sushi dishes! Let’s have an experience together that makes us a better person going forward.

                                                    Cholesta Roll
                   The First Chicken Fried Steak and Sushi Fusion Roll

Our menu is set, our staff is ready and we’re so excited to feed our ATX friends and neighbors. Join us TODAY, August 18, for an Austin fusion sushi experience like nothing you’ve ever experienced! 

We are open 11 - 2:30 and 5 - 9 today, can’t wait to see you!

Charity is so much more than just donations. It is about following the goodness of your heart to lift someone that is struggling. Charity embraces religion, education, assistance to the government, promotion of health, providing relief to those less fortunate and towards the general benefit of a community.

We have a responsibility as human beings to give back to the community where we live. It is the only way to ensure that community’s success. Whether we provide jobs, support organizations financially, or giving our time to others in need, it is our duty.

Many people hear the word “charity,” and think, “OK, where do I send the check?” However, there are so many ways for us to be supportive. You can volunteer at a local food bank, serve on committees at your place of worship, or simply make a grocery run for a neighbor that cannot. 

If we all find a cause that is close to our hearts, and find a way to be helpful, this world might see peace and not war. Giving back to our community is not about our need to feel good, but about making others feel loved and protected. 

I think these quotes say it best:

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

– Mother Teresa
 

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is every wasted.

– Aesop

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty and find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded.”  

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others.”

– Henry Drummond

At Roll On Sushi Diner, our goal is to support Austin and its surrounding communities. Our first contribution … is providing jobs. That is just the first of many other ideas we have about giving back to our fellow Austinites. After our grand opening in August, we plan to collaborate with local charities, and get involved with local artists – music, painters, Filmmakers etc. Hopefully, we can even encourage other local businesses to do the same. After all, even the smallest gesture makes an immeasurable difference to those in need. 

If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die. ~ William Shakespeare

 Selecting what music to play in a restaurant has long been a sore subject for owners starting a venture. Do we or don’t we? If we do play music, what genre should it be? How loud do we play it? These questions force many restaurant owners to go so far as to hire music consultants to pick the perfect playlist, but how do you guarantee that one consultant knows what’s best for an eclectic city such as ours? We decided to start by understanding music, and what it does to our bodies, minds and souls.

Music began as a form of communication almost the same time as spoken language. It’s an ancient art that has seen many adaptations, and where it goes in the future we will leave to the talented artists emerging everyday. Beyond communicating a message or story, music can be used in therapy, as an aphrodisiac, as a mood enhancer, as a stress reliever, or even as an energy booster. What’s really amazing is when you breakdown the affect that a good tune plays on the human body.

Music has the ability to slow down and equalize each of the four different brainwaves. Different musical tones alert specific waves causing you, and your mood, to react accordingly. For example, if you find yourself in an unfocused or emotional mood, a few minutes of Mozart can steady your consciousness allowing thoughts to come through clearly. In other parts of the body, music can affect your blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, reduce muscle tension, increase coordination, regulate stress hormones, boost the immune system, and (the part that we like) aid in digestion.

So if different types of music have the ability to do different things to our body, how can we know what is the right sound for Roll On Sushi Diner? Well let’s start with what we know is wrong. According to an article in the NY Times, restaurants make up a “significant portion” of the 400,000 locations pumping out tired tunes from Muzak. We know we can do better; we just need to understand the art of pairing music with food.

If you think about it, every genre of fodder comes with its own musical influence. Italian fare makes us think Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. Think Asian cuisine, and we hear flutes and harps. Take Mexican dining, and we think of a Mariachi band bouncing between tables. An American burger joint, we think of Elvis and classic rock-and-roll.

It’s obvious that different styles of music complement certain cuisines, but what aligns with Austin fusion if, in the grand scheme of world foods, we have only just begun to define it as a cuisine? At Roll On Sushi, we think that local and independent musicians – introducing their sound to a restaurant of people already in the market for something new – sounds about right to us. That is exactly what we intend to do, it’s perfect. Our mission is to support local business. In Austin, music is the local business. We plan to feature fantastic artists that pour their souls into the music they create, just as every roll we prepare comes straight from the heart.