Funky Fresh Spring Rolls — the Milwaukee-based frozen spring roll brand known for its health-conscious, unconventional flavors — returned to local grocery store shelves last week with plans to expand.
As of Wednesday, four flavors of baked egg rolls are available in the frozen food section at Outpost Natural Foods’ four stores in Milwaukee, Mequon and Wauwatosa: sweet potato and black bean, buffalo chicken, chicken club and chicken and broccoli mushroom. A box of three retails for $7.99.
Starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, Funky Fresh Spring Rolls will also be available at Sendik’s and Woodman’s locations. By the end of 2024, the spring rolls will be found in 40 grocery stores in Wisconsin, said Funky Fresh founder TrueMan McGee.
He said that by next summer, more than 500 stores across the country are expected to offer the spring rolls.
“I’m extremely proud of this moment and this opportunity to go from a home-grown company that I literally started out of my parent’s house in 2013 to a company that today, we’re thinking of, serving hundreds of thousands of households in Wisconsin and across the country,” McGee said.
Funky Fresh Spring Rolls was born and raised in Milwaukee
Funky Fresh Spring Rolls was founded in 2013 by McGee, a Milwaukee native and graduate of Bradley Tech High School and Milwaukee Area Technical College.
McGee began his career in construction before creating the egg rolls because he had a need for healthy recipes during his weight loss journey and later for his personal training clients. The egg roll company grew quickly and opened its first store in the former Grand Avenue Mall in Milwaukee in early 2018.
Later in 2018, the company moved to Sherman Phoenix, a converted building focused on small businesses and entrepreneurs of color, where McGee operated a restaurant called Funky Fresh Spring Rolls until 2023. Throughout their existence, the spring rolls were also offered at farmers markets in the Milwaukee area.
In addition to the four flavors on Outpost’s shelves, McGee plans to eventually introduce many of the flavors Milwaukeeans “know and love” to the national market, including jerk chicken, Southwest chicken, breakfast sandwiches and maybe even dessert sandwiches.
In 2022, well-known frozen pizza and frozen food maker Palermo Villa Inc. became the majority owner of a joint venture between Palermo and Funky Fresh. As part of this partnership, the egg roll brand participated in a market test with 150 locations in local stores, including Sendik’s, Outpost Natural Foods, Festival Foods, Woodman’s and Piggly Wiggly, to gather customer feedback. Funky Fresh withdrew from market testing in late 2023 to focus on improving the product.
According to a press release from Palermo, the “refreshed” Funky Fresh Spring Rolls “offer an improved flavor profile with a new, crispier packaging.” The product has been relaunched in a box instead of a bag.
McGee said Funky Fresh has improved both the taste and quality of the ingredients in its prepackaged spring rolls.
“We have a better, all-natural chicken and our processes are a little better,” he said. “We’re mimicking our restaurant strategies: We do smaller batches so it feels more like it’s handmade. And they’re all hand-rolled by real people.”
“The bun just tastes better. For example, last time we had buffalo chicken spread with blue cheese, and we realized that a lot of people don’t like blue cheese. We replaced it with cream cheese. … I’m always grateful for our customers and that we can create a product that people love.”
