A Second Brand for Restaurant Operators

If you already run restaurants, you know how to hire, schedule and open a store. The questions that matter are different: what a new concept asks of your teams, where it sits beside the brands you run, and how it grows past one unit. This post answers them for a Kati Roll.

What a Kati Roll adds to a portfolio

A Kati Roll is a counter-service store with a short menu: rolls, bowls, momos, sides, lassi and chai, all built around six fillings. Every meat is certified halal, our chicken is antibiotic and hormone free, and half of the fillings are vegetarian, so one menu covers a mixed group. The food is wrapped in paper and made to be eaten on the go, which suits dine-in, pickup and delivery alike.

The concept also brings a name with a history. The Kati Roll Company opened on MacDougal Street in 2002, and Nation's Restaurant News named it one of its Breakout Brands of 2017. The franchise program began in 2024. The food and the brand are twenty-four years old, and the franchise system is young enough that its first partners help shape how it grows.

Why a short menu trains well

Training across several units starts with the menu. Each roll has five layers that go on in a fixed order: the bread, the filling, lime-cilantro chutney, onions and chaat masala. The bowls use the same fillings and the same chutney. The build is the same in every store.

Before each store opens, we provide comprehensive initial training, in the kitchen and on the floor, along with playbooks for operations, hiring and training. How we train and support our partners covers the detail.

One difference to plan for: the menu stays the menu. If your group is used to tuning menus by market, this concept works the other way, and that discipline is what keeps the roll in your store the same roll as the one on MacDougal Street. You do set prices, with our guidance on a pricing structure for each location.

The supply chain comes with the brand

Consistency across units is a supply question as much as a training one. Our spice blends, sauces and breads come from us. Everything else, including halal and antibiotic-free meats, comes from suppliers we approve. Equipment and furniture come mostly from approved suppliers you buy from, with certain specialized equipment from us.

On the front of house, partners get POS, online ordering and digital loyalty set up, along with targeted marketing services. If your group already runs its own systems across brands, put that on your list for Discovery and ask how ours sit alongside them.

Growing past one store

Multi-unit agreements, for 3 to 5 units, are strongly preferred. The fee for a multi-unit agreement sits with the single-store investment and the ongoing fees in what a Kati Roll franchise costs. The FDD governs, and you receive it during your application.

Our first franchise partner opened two stores in 2024: Dallas, on Elm Street downtown, on April 4, and Plano, on State Highway 121, on August 24. That is under five months between openings, in two cities. The story is in Kati Roll in Texas.

Each store's territory is set in your franchise agreement, and the FDD sets out how it works. If you already have sites or cities in mind for more than one store, bring them to the introduction call so the conversation starts with your plan.

What we ask of an operator

Operational experience or relevant business leadership is strongly preferred. Beyond that, we look for operators who want to build something: a strong local presence, a growth mindset and values that match ours, starting with respect.

The path has five steps: inquiry, introduction, application, discovery and agreement, and from inquiry to opening walks through each one. At Discovery you come to New York, eat with us, meet the team and stand in a lunch line at one of our Manhattan stores, such as World Trade on Maiden Lane in the Financial District.

This post is not an offer to sell a franchise. An offer is made only by a Franchise Disclosure Document delivered in accordance with applicable law. The full investment table, the support list and the questions owners ask first are on our franchise page.