experiential retail


Wasabi Sushi has a location in Natick Mall, an upscale shopping center in Natick, MA.


Conveyor belt sushi whets growing consumer appetite for fun “experiences.” Stephanie Vozza


by grabbing a plate from a conveyor belt that delivers food throughout the dining area. “Our sushi concept is substantially different,” says Bo Davis,


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president of Wasabi Sushi, headquartered in Washington D.C. “In addition to the conveyor belt system, we’re located in common areas of large regional malls, and we ‘float’ in the hallways of center courts.”


The launch While Wasabi Sushi is unique in the United States, conveyor- belt sushi isn’t new. The idea originated in Japan in the 1950s


ood service is vital to a restaurant’s success, but at Wasabi Sushi you won’t find traditional waiters or waitresses. Instead, you’ll serve yourself spicy tuna or California rolls


as a fast food idea. Davis says thousands of these places existed, selling low-quality sushi at a high volume. In the ’90s, European restaurateurs borrowed the concept, with a more upscale atmosphere and higher pricing. Davis was living in London in 2005 when he saw the concept


for the first time. Having sold his software company in 2002 for $9.6 million, Davis says he was looking for something new. He hired an executive chef and brought the idea to the United States.


Davis launched the first Wasabi Sushi conveyor belt restaurant in a traditional retail space in Washington, D.C., near the White House in 2006. Over the next three years, he opened a few non-conveyor belt sushi locations. Then he tried his first mall location —Tyson’s Corner Center in McLean, Virginia, in 2009. “It was insane,” Davis recalls. “People really liked it. We spent


the next year regrouping and decided to focus only on opening mall locations. We closed all other stores.”


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