Memphis Handroll Sushi Restaurant Came to Owners in a Dream
- January 30, 2026
- Landlord
From left, Vuthy “Tee” Srey, Pat Vong, Ann Nguyen and Jackie Lee are heading a new sushi restaurant in East Memphis. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
Chef Pat Vong prepares a dish at Maru Handroll Bar in East Memphis. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
Maru Handroll Bar opened on Thursday, Jan. 22, at Poplar Collection, bringing Memphis a sushi handroll restaurant.
The two-story, 1,400-square-foot restaurant is in the former Cotton Row Antiques spot at 4615 Poplar Ave., with a dedicated handroll bar on the ground floor and the mezzanine level offering an exclusive space for a chef-led omakase service, which is a series of small servings or courses offered at a fixed price.
“We wanted to do something different than your typical sushi roll,” said co-owner Ann Nguyen. “We decided that Memphis needed a hand roll bar.”
Maru Handroll Bar offers sushi handrolls made with ingredients flown in from Japan, including nori, the seaweed wrap; uni, a sea urchin; and chutoro, a blue tuna.
Although the food is from afar, Maru Handroll Bar does source locally for some of its products, including its house cold sake from Hot Springs, Arkansas-based Origami Sake.
“We will bring a unique sake program at Maru with a variety of sakes,” a social media post said “from light and refreshing to full-bodied unpasteurized sakes.”
Nguyen said the restaurant came to her husband and co-owner, Jackie Lee, in a dream.
“He had a dream saying he’s going to open up a handroll bar in Memphis,” she said. “My husband and I have been talking about this for a few years now.”
Maru Handroll Bar is the sister restaurant of Red Koi. Red Koi is owned by Lee’s family, led by his father, Liedy Handoko. Handoko said Lee, alongside his wife, is taking care of the bar.
Nguyen and Lee met in Memphis after messaging on Facebook in 2012.
She moved here in 2012 for nursing school. Lee moved from New York to Memphis when he was in middle school, and the restaurant business kept him here.
Nguyen stayed in Memphis, becoming a nurse practitioner, and after more than a decade in health care, wanted to pivot to the restaurant industry.
More than a year ago, Lee and Nguyen teamed up with Tee Srey, the culinary director with almost two decades of sushi experience, to bring the handroll bar to life.
Srey splits his time between Memphis and Houston, where he works at sushi restaurants and has seen the handroll concept be successful.
He said he wanted to bring the new type of sushi to Memphis alongside Pat Vong, the head sushi chef.
“I believe Memphis was truly ready for the next step in the culinary cuisine,” he said. “Handrolls are really fun, engaging, and successful.”
John Reed, a partner at TSCG, represented both Maru Handroll Bar and the landlord.
Reed hadn’t heard of the handroll concept before, but he said it would be a good fit for the area, with “the high incomes, great density, and great traffic counts.”
“I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t just become a huge hit,” Reed said. “If you like sushi, this is it, just the kind of top of the heap.”
Although Maru Handroll Bar is open, reservations will not be accepted until Thursday, Jan. 29, due to the inclement weather.
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