The Egg Roll Brand, Rock N Rolls’ is Opening Their First Brick & Mortar In The Northeast
Back in 2016 Shamaya “Bella” Oberlton launched her innovative egg roll brand Rock N Rolls’. After seven years of grinding even through the pandemic, Bella is now set to open her first brick & mortar location on June 1st at 2903 Holme Avenue in the Northeast.
Rock N Rolls’ will be a takeout only restaurant that will offer a wide variety of savory and sweet egg rolls and to celebrate the occasion, Bella will be giving away egg roll sampler packs to the first 100 customers that show up on opening day.
In addition to the giveaway, Bella will hand-off funds raised from her first weekend’s sales to Northeast Philly’s Big Hustle Athletics to help offset the cost for community members to participate in founder Melvin Hicks’ programming. Big Hustle Athletics organizes sports leagues year-round to keep Philadelphia’s youth actively engaged in positive activities as well as in a constant learning environment, and Hicks’ mission is to create a loving and positive environment that will produce and develop future leaders of Philadelphia.
Bella’s Rock N Rolls concept launched seven years ago when she was inspired by her family’s cooking, and was looking to get into the culinary space while doing something different. She started selling her innovative egg rolls to friends and family and then expanded. In 2016, she launched a food truck at 36th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, but closed two years later to be a stay-at-home mom to her newborn baby, younger brother, and foster son at the time. The business was not operational for a year, which was very challenging time for Bella, as she was adjusting to not only becoming a new mom, but trying to figure out a balance between parenting and business. She was also still grieving her mother’s death and suffering from post-partum depression. Not wanting to give up on her and her mother’s vision, Bella was determined to pick up the pieces and put her business back together. Her relaunch began right in her living room, as she went back to the origins of how she first started, and sold her dinners from her home to friends, family, and long-time supporters. This eventually grew into corporate catering contracts with some pretty big companies such as the Philadelphia 76ers, Health Partners, Clear Channel Radio, Einstein Hospital, and vending for the Philadelphia Eagles during their Super Bowl win. In 2020, Bella lost her food truck in an automobile accident and needed to find a way to pivot, as her business was primarily mobile and grew to be unsustainable to manage at home. It was then that Bella took the leap of faith to open a ghost kitchen at the North Center Food Nest, near Broad Street and Girard Avenue.
Bella signed her lease for the new location in 2022, and is finally ready to open for business. Her menu features a number of different egg rolls, the most popular of which are her Crab Cake Egg Roll, a Cheesesteak Egg Roll, and a Salmon Egg Roll. On the dessert side, the Strawberry Cheesecake Egg Roll, Apple Pie Egg Roll, and Peach Cobbler Egg Roll are her most popular sweet items. The menu was originally conceptualized with Bella’s mother, Elvita Williams, who unfortunately passed away just one month after her launch in 2016.
“I began this journey with my mother, as we developed the business together during her long chemotherapy appointments,” said Bella. “It was the last mother-daughter project we would ever work on together. It was very difficult for me when she wasn’t able to experience the start of the business we had both worked so hard to create. I try to honor her each and every day with this business and with what I do for the community.”
In honor of the late Elvita Williams, Rock N Rolls adopts a family affected by cancer each year and donates Christmas gifts and holiday dinners to them. She calls it her annual “Thankful for Life Donation,” which she eventually plans to build into a non-profit one day.
Oberlton is a Temple University alumnus, a real estate investor, an advocate for cancer patients, a mom to her own children and others through fostering, and she enjoys assisting her community by providing job opportunities for ex-cons who are looking to turn their lives around. Rock N Rolls currently employs eight people, but will double in size once the shop opens.
