Fishbowl is changing its name, and the founders don’t mind if you hate it

If salad and rice bowl chain Fishbowl were to start all over again, there are a few things that would look a little different.

The name, for starters. “We wouldn’t call ourselves Fishbowl,” said co-founder Nic Pestalozzi. “It’s suggestive of what we were in 2016. But it’s not reflective of what we’re serving today.”

The nationwide rebrand of the Asian-inspired, made-to-order food chain to Thisbowl will kick off at the freshly revamped store in Bondi, where Fishbowl was founded in 2016. About 19 other stores will sport the new name on Tuesday, with others to undergo the conversion by mid-October.

There were three protein options on offer when twenty-something mates and university drop-outs Pestalozzi, Casper Ettelson and Nathan Dalah started making salads in a 26-square-metre outlet in Bondi: kingfish, salmon and tuna. Prawns and octopus were introduced some time after but have already disappeared from the menu.

Ten years and more than 60 new stores later, salmon is the only seafood protein that remains and makes up less than 30 per cent of orders as customers opt for chicken and beef.

To take it to the next decade, the founders are keen to shake off literal implications of the name Fishbowl, which they say has deterred prospective customers from walking in, on the assumption that they only sell seafood. When they opened in the beachside suburb of Manly, people walked in expecting to be able to order fish and chips.

Thisbowl, on the other hand, is open-ended. “Thisbowl means everything but nothing at the same time,” said Pestalozzi. “Fishbowl is not for everyone – you’re not going to walk in there if you don’t like fish. Thisbowl is for everyone and it speaks to how we’ve evolved, what the menu is today, and where we’re going.”

No one loves a product or a brand more or less because of what it’s called, the founders argue; a name can just be a name. It’s not their first name change, either: early iterations of the business included Fishbowl Poke and Fishbowl Sashimi. Most regulars probably won’t even notice, they say. The hand-scrawled logo will stay the same.

“We’re probably going to have some wonderful long debates over which name’s better,” said Ettelson. “Honestly, if they’re upset by it, we can have a fun polarising conversation with them, and I think that’s also OK.”

“Most customers will respect the change,” added Pestalozzi. “But anyway, if they want to keep calling it Fishbowl, they can.”

‘Nothing sloppy about it’

Part of what explains the founders’ unwillingness to glance in the rearview mirror is what they call their one-store mentality: every new store opening is treated like the first, with inspiration taken from the local community of that outlet. Its Broadway store features art from local students at the University of Technology Sydney across the road, including one canvas painted by Pestalozzi himself. The founders built the kind of place they wanted to hang out in, with attention placed on art, store design, music, events and collaborations.

Much is made of how a bowl is actually constructed: the founders stridently push back on suggestions that they refined the “slop bowl”, slang for the fast-casual and highly customisable lunch meals, usually a mix of protein, rice, vegetables and other toppings, favoured by office workers on the go.

The base of a Thisbowl (rice, mixed leaves or noodles) is dressed with soy sauce and sesame seeds before protein and other toppings are mixed and “aerated” with a “fluid flick of the wrist motion”. That mix is then added to the base and topped with seaweed salad and fish roe or pickled daikon. A crunchy layer like crispy shallots is sprinkled on top, followed by a final dusting of sesame seeds.

“Internally we describe it as creating a fluffy mountain. So instead of just throwing food in a bowl, our goal is to place the food as lightly and gently as possible, and teepee it as, like, tall as we can get it,” said Ettelson.

“There’s nothing sloppy about it,” said Pestalozzi. “It’s finessed.”

The founders don’t believe much in catering to regional differences, either; if something works well in one market, it will probably work well in the other. Co-founder Nathan Dalah has spent the past two years in New York after relocating his family in early 2024 ahead of the first US store opening in Manhattan’s NoHo in April that year.

“We didn’t overthink it,” said Dalah of debuting as Thisbowl. Since at least 2022 they have been hinting at the new name with a bowl design that says ‘FISHBOWL THISBOWL’.

There is much more competition in New York, he acknowledged, but while there are more options, they aren’t necessarily better.

Thisbowl is expecting to notch $200 million in revenue for the current financial year. The founders have opted not to franchise and own all their stores and, aside from a handful of strategic investors including Sydney-based private equity firm Yendys Capital and Manhattan-based firm Stripes, the trio are majority shareholders.

They don’t believe in store targets, either, and are keen to focus on expanding across Australia and sticking to Manhattan before going further afield.

“The last 10 years was like a practice run,” said Pestalozzi. “Now I’m excited about doing it for real.”

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