Rick Henriksen amassed 10 years of restaurant experience in Reno before changing careers. Once a busboy for the Peppermill, his food industry background includes stints working as a line cook and a bartender. In addition to the Peppermill, he picked up shifts at Marie Callender’s and Olive Garden.

But Henriksen spent the last 20 years working in the oral health technology industry. In 2005, he became president of Dexis, an oral health technology company, and sold it. His wife, Wendy, still holds a vice president title. 

With a lull in his entrepreneurial roles—Rick has invested in a few health technology companies over the years—he decided to revisit his roots. It was time to act on a long-time dream of his to own a local restaurant in the place four generations of his family have called home, including three children and seven grandchildren. The Henriksens joke they always wanted to open an independent, non-profit restaurant where they could feed their friends for free.

They didn’t go quite that route. 

Instead, Wendy started researching franchise opportunities. It was visits to Teriyaki Madness at the Shayden Summit Mall that acted as the catalyst for their new venture and Rick’s retirement gig. “It’s important to me to sell things I believe in and would eat myself,” he said.

Wendy handles the back office details, including accounting, software setup and payroll.

Rick and Wendy are poised to open three Teriyaki Madness locations in the region, with the first that opened Jan. 12 inside Meadowood Mall.

“Our industry has always kept us nationally and internationally but never locally,” Rick shared. “We’ve kind of had a craving to do something locally.”

The opportunity practically fell into the couple’s lap. Rei Garcia, the owner of the Summit location of Teriyaki Madness, had plans to open the Meadowood location when he heard from the previous owner of the Summit location, Gillian Beerman, that she was looking to sell. 

With that option, Rick said Garcia walked away from the Meadowood plans and moved his dreams to the Summit, which left an opening for another franchisee to jump in. 

According to Rick, the franchise rule for Teriyaki Madness is that no store may be built within two miles of another franchisee’s location. The Henriksens took over the lease plans for Meadowood Mall and purchased two other licenses from corporate.

The second location will take over one of five of the available buildings just south of the university’s campus. The plan is to have that place up and running this summer.

As for the third location, that is still in the works. Rick said he and Wendy haven’t found a third space that speaks to them. They are open to another Reno location but also wouldn’t rule out Spanish Springs or Sparks if the right location became available. “We feel great about the first two,” Rick said.

It’s all part of a plan to build a franchise company, one that their two sons will be involved with, beginning with both manning a store. Under the Cobra Enterprise umbrella, Rick said they could easily invest in one or two more Teriyaki Madness stores in the area, but they plan to diversify by adding other franchises locally. “I think there’s enough demand,” Rick said of Teriyaki Madness. “We’ll see, right? We don’t have to make that decision yet.”

Teriyaki Madness is an Asian-fusion, fast-casual restaurant boasting fresh ingredients and original recipes. Their main food options include bowls made with a variety of proteins and also offered in vegetarian versions.

There are more than 140 locations of Teriyaki Madness in three countries, including the new location in Reno. 

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https://teriyakimadness.com/locations/nv-reno/

13963 S Virginia Street, Ste 904