And then something amazing happened.
The Taco Bells of the world gave way to Chipotle’s, Moe’s and Qdoba. The McDonald’s gave way to the Five Guys, Shake Shacks and Smashburgers. Even restaurants that threaded the needle like Subway started losing ground to Panera and Au Bon Pain.
They called it fast casual, and it represented perhaps the greatest advancement in family dining since free crayons. And while this new wave of hybrid fast casual restaurants, ones that eschewed the formality of tableside service but embraced the possibility that fast food can still taste good, changed the dining landscape, there was one sector that was left behind: seafood.
Well, hold onto your tricorn hat, Captain D. The fast casual concept has come to seafood in the form of Slapfish.
“It’s gourmet seafood in a casual atmosphere,” said Zach Lomasney, co-owner, along with his brother Dave and parents Dave and Sharon, of the Hilton Head Island Slapfish. “We’re the gap between the fine dining and the greasy fast food of seafood.”
One trip through the menu proves that the fast casual philosophy seems to have been tailor made for seafood. Whether it’s the lobster taquitos, fish tacos, or poke bowls, each dish is as effortlessly Instagramable as it is overwhelmingly delicious. These are the dishes you’d expect to have to navigate past a maître d to enjoy, served with the speed that the deep-fried drive-throughs only dream about.
Part of that stems from the menu’s West Coast pedigree. “There’s almost a little bit of a California vibe to the food,” Zach said. “You look at our shrimp burrito, it has loads of shrimp, rice, spinach, pickled onion, awesome sauce and salsa. It’s a very California-style burrito.”
It stands to reason. Slapfish started out as a single food truck run by Andrew Gruel, famed for Food Network’s Food Truck Face Off and FYI’s Say It to My Face! Within three months of launching the concept, Gruel had a fleet of trucks. Within a year, he had a brick-and-mortar restaurant. And then it was time to expand. And while Slapfish has grown by leaps and bounds in California, Hilton Head Island represents one of just a handful of East Coast locations, including Orlando, Florida, Rockville, Maryland and Washington, D.C., and nearby Pooler, GA.
“It’s kind of like a new niche. There haven’t been too many restaurants that do the same thing,” Zach said. “We’re kind of here to fill that gap. We felt there was something lacking in the Hilton Head area.”
For Zach, coming together as a family to fill that niche was a no-brainer. “My parents had a lot of experience franchising, so they’ve been a great help leading us through this venture,” he said. Among the first franchisees for Planet Fitness, the elder David and Sharon were on the ground floor for the chain of gyms, growing alongside it and even introducing some of the cornerstones of the concept (Sharon, for example, pioneered the 30-minute workout room).
“I grew up in the gym with them as a kid,” Zach said. “We were all a little split apart back when we started looking at this. It was hard being apart for a while, so we wanted to look at something we could do together.”
Everyone played a role, from the parents sharing their franchise knowledge to Zach working in his experience in hospitality to the younger Dave’s extensive contractor experience. That last one definitely came in handy as the family set about converting an old convenience store and gas station into the first standalone Slapfish location.
“It’s basically a brand-new building. We did a lot of renovations,” Zach said. “It was definitely interesting, but this was a great location … I don’t think you can come onto Hilton Head and not see this restaurant.”
They’re not stopping at just a restaurant. Like the fast casual revolution Slapfish represents, the Lomasney family keeps on changing the game. Like most restaurants, they found themselves facing a worker shortage over the last year, but they’ve innovated to overcome.
“We have a great staff here and they’ve been here for a while,” Zach said. “We were going to end up losing some of them due to housing, so we went out and purchased a condo just to house our staff. We think they’re great, and we don’t want to lose them.”
Treating their employees right is just one of the many innovative new ideas that Slapfish represents. But perhaps their most delicious idea is the one you’ll sample when you stop in for a delicious bite of fast casual seafood brilliance.
Slapfish is located at 1024 William Hilton Parkway, Hilton Head Island. For more information or to see the menu, visit slapfishrestaurant.com.
