What You Need To Know About Slapfish, The Casual Seafood Chain You're About To See Everywhere

If you haven't already come across a Slapfish location, chances are it won't be too long before you do. The casual seafood chain has already established dozens of outlets across the United States in its 14 or so years of operation, and the pattern of the franchise's expansion suggests that sooner or later, an outlet will open somewhere close to you.

But what exactly is Slapfish all about? We're taking a deep dive into the company's origins and accelerated growth into one of the best seafood restaurants around. We also explore what's on the menu, as well as the ethical values that drive founder, Andrew Gruel. This is the story of Slapfish and everything you need to know about it.

The grass-to-grace story of Slapfish is not a unique one, but it has unfolded in relatively quick fashion. Long before the restaurant was growing at the lightning speed it has been in the last decade or so, the business started out as a simple retrofitted food truck.

Founder Andrew Gruel revealed to Forbes in 2016 how he went to an old "roach coach" rental lot to seek out a truck that he could use to get his idea off the ground. This was after he had done the math and concluded that he would otherwise need a hefty $200,000 to kickstart his concept as an actual brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Gruel managed to secure one old vehicle for $1,500 and then spent four times that amount in retrofitting costs. The next step was to work on the menu, for which he decided to take a minimalist approach. "I went to the docks in California to get fresh seafood and I called my friends in Maine to get processed lobster," Gruel told Forbes. "I did three items, a big sloppy fish sandwich, a fish taco, and a lobster roll."

The food truck portion of Slapfish's origin story happened in 2011, but the venture really took off in the years that followed. America was still slowly stirring back to life after the 2008 financial crisis. With more and more people turning to entrepreneurship for their livelihood, Andrew Gruel and his team were definitely not alone in the start-up space. And while the Chicago Booth Review reported that 66,000 new businesses were able to secure early funding, only 2,000 of those went on to receive venture funding.

Slapfish would not face such growing pains. Within one year, the business was doing so well that it moved to a permanent location in Huntington Beach. In order to do this, Gruel sold off his old food truck, as well as the additional two that he had acquired since starting out. The money was really flowing in now, as well. He told Forbes: "Within three months I had three food trucks rolling around Orange County and Los Angeles. On the weekends I could gross almost $8,000. Within six months I had a 10-person staff."

When you walk into a Slapfish location anywhere, there are a few guarantees that the brand purports to offer you. The first is that you are about to dine on some of the very best seafood you can find anywhere. In his conversation with Forbes, Andrew Gruel went into detail about what motivated him to pursue the concept of Slapfish. He argued that seafood had been lagging behind other sub-sectors in terms of quality options for customers.

"In every other sector of food you started to see better pizza, the better burger movement. In the fast casual realm — a step up from fast food and a step down from casual dining — there was nothing for seafood," Gruel said. But beyond the quality of the food, he was also determined to provide a menu that people could afford. In the earliest days of the franchise, most items sold at Slapfish were kept below $14.

So what is it that you can actually expect to sample when you finally venture into a Slapfish restaurant? Well, the Clobster Grilled Cheese is a strong favorite. On the restaurant's official menu, you can see it essentially described as a warm blend of lobster and crab tossed in a creamy herb sauce and served on toasted sourdough with a side of fries, salad, or coleslaw.

If this doesn't quite float your boat, other options on the menu include the Lobster Roll and the Ultimate Fish Taco. All these items resonate with the founders' goal to provide customers with food that is both quality and healthy. In an interview on the Slapfish website, Andrew Gruel was once asked about how the restaurant serves its tilapia.

"Fish tacos or fish fingers or something fun like that," he responded. "Our formula is to take something everybody knows — as simple as chicken tenders, grilled cheese, mac 'n cheese. We reinterpret and redefine it to make it something unique." In a separate conversation on YouTube, Gruel reiterated his commitment to maintaining high quality in their food: "When I serve Regal Springs tilapia I know that I'm giving people an amazing protein that's healthy."

Beyond its bold ambition to serve affordable, high-quality seafood, Slapfish has also made room on its menu for plant-based alternatives. In September 2023, the restaurant announced in a press release the arrival of their novel plant-based NEW WAVE shrimp, a vegan alternative to traditional shrimp. This addition was part of two new items being added to the menu. The restaurant's creative team described the Coconut Shrimp Basket and the Coconut Shrimp Bowl as "classic yet contemporary mouthwatering delights."

Slapfish LLC President Dan Anfinson emphasized the company's commitment to keep elevating their patrons' dining experience. He said in the press release, "At Slapfish, we are always exploring innovative ways to delight our guests with extraordinary flavors." Anfinson was also quoted in QSR Magazine when Slapfish partnered with The Culinary Edge innovation agency to open new restaurants in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Among the ideas that were being introduced alongside these new locations was a full menu customization, where guests could choose their meal format and protein. Plant-based seafood options were also included in this new approach, which was dubbed "Pick Your Voyage." Speaking about the developments, Anfinson said, "Our focus is to maintain the highest quality ingredients at an affordable price point, creating seafood for the every day."

If you've come across a Slapfish story somewhere, chances are that you have also encountered the word "sustainability." Andrew Gruel and his team appear to take great pride in the fact that they source their seafood from suppliers who adhere to strict sustainable practices. These distributors include brands like Verlasso Salmon, who put a strong emphasis on traceability of food from farm to plate. This specific organization also raises its salmon in remote and pristine farming areas, which ensures a minimal impact on the environment.

Slapfish acquires its mahi mahi and cod from Slade Gorton, who claim to have a commitment towards "reducing waste, regenerating resources and reshaping the consumer's experience with seafood." Among other ways, the Massachusetts-based seafood company accomplishes these goals by supporting and maintaining certifications from reputable organizations. These include the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for wild-caught seafood and Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) for farmed products.

Before the restaurant was even big enough to be purchasing supplies from the likes of Slade Gorton and Verlasso Salmon, Andrew Gruel was still committed to sustainability. His goal was to make Slapfish "the Chipotle of seafood." While it's up for debate if Chipotle can be considered fast food, it is known for offering the convenience of a fast-casual restaurant chain, while delivering responsibly sourced food in a customizable dining experience. Sound familiar? That's right, it was these exact tenets that Gruel wanted to see in his own franchise.

In his chat with Forbes, the founding chef spoke about the confusion that existed in the minds of the public regarding seafood. He also explained how he saw this as a gap in the market and went ahead to exploit it. He did so by connecting directly to fishermen, simultaneously staying true to his desire for guaranteed quality and sustainability.

"People were confused about seafood because of the misconceptions about chemicals and mercury," Gruel said. "I wanted to run the Chipotle of seafood. I wanted to scale this thing and connect with the local fishermen I'd made connections with and keep the quality high."

Just about every company these days will deliver grand proclamations about their sustainability practices. Not all, of course, follow through with whatever claims they make. This false advertising is called greenwashing, where businesses attempt to sell themselves off as being more environmentally conscious than they truly are. According to Andrew Gruel's assertions, Slapfish has progressively aimed to move in the opposite direction.

The franchise took another step towards fortifying its sustainability policy in 2018, when the executives engaged the Vigor agency for a rebranding campaign. Slapfish wanted to differentiate itself by highlighting the time and effort invested in sourcing responsibly through sustainable practices and partnerships. The rebrand entailed revisions to the restaurant's logo, typography, and color palette, as well as the implementation of regionally customized menu designs.

In essence, the company was trying to amplify its message on the importance of genuine sustainability. Slapfish achieves this authenticity by sourcing food from organizations that buy directly from farmers and only purchasing international seafood if it's certified by the MSC. Andrew Gruel also spoke about making personal visits to seafood farms to verify that the feed is organic and sustainable and to ensure that effluent and run-off do not harm the environment.

Slapfish's meteoric rise appeared to be taking an even wilder turn when it was announced in 2014 that the company had signed a deal to open 75 locations in the Middle East. This was still barely four years since Andrew Gruel had acquired his first food truck. The franchising agreement was supposed to be rolled out step by step, with the goal of 75 stores to be achieved within a 10-year period. The first location was even opened at the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai in June 2014. In a press release acnnouncingthe impending expansion on the restaurant's official website, it was also revealed that Slapfish was exploring moving into the Chinese and Indian markets.

Unfortunately for anyone who had been hanging their hat on this deal, an apparent lack of proper planning from the part of the franchising parties meant the deal fell through before it had barely taken off. At least this was what Gruel told Forbes: "This group had no restaurant experience. They were trying to open six brands in 300 locations. They were supposed to open five Slapfishes in the first year and they only opened one. They never paid any of the development fees. We ended up taking the license back."

In the years since Slapfish was founded, the franchise has grown into a recognizable brand with a presence in multiple states across the country. The company has also built up a strong presence on social media in the same time period. Slapfish has upwards of 128,000 followers on Instagram, on an active account that shares regular updates and attracts a decent amount of interactions per post. The restaurant has taken on a clever tag-line on its IG bio, evidently crafted to reflect the quality and sustainability ethos of the establishment: "Sea-riously fresh. Responsibly sourced." In addition, there are at least 43,000 accounts that like the Slapfish page on Facebook, with around 1,000 more registered as followers of the restaurant on the social media platform.

Their numbers may be small when you compare them to some of the big-hitters in the seafood restaurant business, but considering they haven't been around for all that long, it is still impressive. As they expand further, you can expect their social media following to increase as well.  

Andrew Gruel wants you to rest assured that any time you step into a Slapfish establishment anywhere, you have the best choice of seafood. He would also like you to know that the food has been sustainably sourced, and he says that he is interested in seeing you enjoy those meals at affordable prices as well. But there is even more to the seemingly endless virtue of Slapfish. An advertisement on the restaurant's official website explains the details of an offer for a special discount to members of the U.S. military — both active and retired — as well as first responders. The deal involves a 10% reduction in price for members of the aforementioned groups, on the condition that they arrive in parties of six people or more.

Gruel himself is a vocal and active supporter of the troops on social media and in real life. On his X (formerly Twitter) account, he reminisced of a time in 2019 when he reportedly toured various U.S. military bases in different parts of the world alongside his wife, Lauren. He went on to explain the goal of their global tour, being an initiative to teach soldiers how to prepare simple meals even in extreme scenarios, including combat.

Andrew Gruel and Slapfish were also at the heart of helping those who were most negatively impacted by the effects of the global COVID lockdown on the restaurant industry back in 2021. Within one year of the pandemic beginning to wreak havoc on the global population, the National Restaurant Association revealed that around 110,000 food eateries had closed down as a consequence. NBC Nightly News reported the steps that Gruel had been taking to combat these negative effects of the lockdown on his peers. According to a post on X, the chef and his wife had helped to raise nearly $400,000.

The amount was geared towards helping alleviate the negative impact of the pandemic on the livelihood of many workers in the restaurant industry. For those lucky enough not to lose their jobs outright, the lockdown still meant a loss of income — whether in the form of hourly salaries or tips by customers. NBC Nightly News shared the tweet alongside a half-minute clip of Gruel thanking those who came together to donate the amount. He also praised the sense of humanity that had been demonstrated by people in a difficult period of time.

Slapfish can be deemed to be a resounding success by many metrics. As a business, the seemingly never-ending growth is an indicator to how well the team has been performing at all levels of the organization. The restaurant also appears to have at the very least successfully matched the original intentions of founder Andrew Gruel to create a franchise that sets high standards for quality of seafood served as well as transparency regarding the sourcing. To top it all off, Slapfish's track record when it comes to giving back speaks for itself. Unsurprisingly, the company has become the recipient of multiple awards and recognitions in the industry.

The first notable accolade that Slapfish received was in 2016, when the company was awarded the MenuMaster's Trendsetter Award for that year. The business has also been recognized as Sustainable Operator of the Year from The Buyer's Edge in 2022. In that same year, Slapfish was listed in Restaurant Magazine's list of Future 50: Emerging Brands.

It's hard to see how Andrew Gruel could have dreamed his journey any better when he was getting Slapfish off the ground in the early 2010s. And after a whirlwind decade where he enjoyed dizzying heights of success, he and his wife, Lauren decided to sell their interest in the business. Stepping in to acquire those shares was the Houston-based investment company Mac Haik Enterprises.

Gruel made this momentous announcement in July 2022 with a post on his X profile. In a short statement, he said: "For those asking — Lauren and I have sold our interest in Slapfish. The plan was always to exit at 10 years and start all over again. Two new concepts hitting the market shortly. Stay tuned." One of the new ventures that the Jersey-born chef was about to take on was Big Parm Pizza. The restaurant is located in Tustin, California and sells a series of signature pizzas from Gruel.

Whatever lessons he learnt from Slapfish he clearly is attempting to translate to Big Parm. There is a section on the brand's website which is specifically dedicated to the potential ways in which various stakeholders could partner with the business in a bid to expand. "Big Parm is aggressively looking for new locations, partnerships and is also offering licensing opportunities," a banner under the expansion section on the site reads.