It's all quick stops and starts, hand movements here, there and then gone. As quickly as he hops onto a subject and begins to get into it, he moves ahead to the next, leaving remnants of previous thought hanging in the air.

Malcolm Dixon of the Mama Fu's Noodle House in Peachtree Road waits on customers Goldie Taylor (left) and her daughter Katie. The chain has grown to five stores.

But when you look at what Sprock has on his plate, it makes sense.

The 38-year-old entrepreneur founded Moe's Southwestern Grill, Planet Smoothie and Mama Fu's Noodle House, quick-casual chains he is working feverishly to take nationwide. His privately held company, Atlanta-based Raving Brands, also includes PJ's Coffee, a chain out of New Orleans.

And now Sprock has unveiled two new restaurant concepts - Doc Green's Gourmet Salads and Bonehead's Seafood. The first Doc Green's is expected to open this summer on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The company is still negotiating the location of the first Bonehead's.

Much of the restaurant industry is starting to regain its balance after three years of languishing sales and schizophrenic attempts at finding the next big thing. Salads, fruit and low-carb menu items are reviving the industry, driving business that was slowly disappearing.

Raving Brands has been more fortunate, Sprock said. The company, which franchises every store except one location that serves as the concept's headquarters, is a $350 million powerhouse bulging at the seams. Some of its competitors include McDonald's Chipotle chain and Wendy's-owned Baja Fresh Mexican Grill.

Building binge

Moe's, the flagship of Raving Brands, averaged sales of $1 million last year, Sprock said. Nation's Restaurant News recently named Moe's the "Hot Concept of the Year" in the fast-casual category.

"We're now building four stores a week," he said of Moe's. "We'd build more if we had the staff."

On the surface, Raving Brands' development roll seems to stem from the popularity of fast-casual, a genre defined as more upscale than fast food but without the cost associated with finer eateries.

But the underlying reason for the company's full-steam push is real estate. Sprock said the more brands a chain commands, the better it will be at negotiating for location. And with five to seven chains under its belt, Raving can eliminate much of the competition.

"We need the real estate," said Sprock, wearing a Mama Fu's polo shirt during a recent interview at the headquarters of Mama Fu's on Peachtree Road. "You win the real estate business; you win the game."

Sprock said he was able to cut a good deal at the burgeoning Atlantic Station development by offering multiple brands to lease space.

Jim Squire, a local developer of Philly Connection stores, agreed. Bundling stores - even identical brands - in clusters may sound counterintuitive, but it's a good advertising vehicle and suggests to the public that there must be something good about the brand if there are so many, so close together.

"The advantage for Martin is he is trying to pioneer the market," said Squire, who also is president of the Georgia Restaurant Association. "He can go into a development like Atlantic Station and cut a great deal by leasing property for so many brands."

Raving Brands is likely to find success by growing quickly rather than playing it conservative, said Kaffee Hopkins, a restaurant marketer with Fletcher Martin Ewing. The company has the jump on its larger, more well-financed competitors and needs to grow to keep the upper hand.

"I say strike while the iron is hot," she said. "Right now fast-casual has the buzz, and now is a good time to get into it."

No gleaming tower

Sprock got his start as a business owner with a string of bars, including Clarence Foster's in Atlanta, after years of working in real estate sales. He eventually operated 14 establishments throughout the Southeast before selling out and founding Planet Smoothie in 1995.

Today, he is probably on the road looking for new real estate options, or sitting in the cramped offices of the various brands he oversees. Unlike his competitors, there is no gleaming tower that Raving Brands calls home. To find the company's officers, you'd have to go past the kitchens and squeeze into spaces that many a corporate player would argue could never be taken seriously.

"Nobody is in the big corporate offices," he said. "This is going back to the ideas of the Depression."

But Sprock is happy to be different. He'll quickly point out that company executives receive salaries of $50,000 a year, though they do receive unspecified profits.

And though he prefers to be casual, he will dress up with a sport jacket and a nice pair of khakis when the occasion calls for it, he said. But he wants the company to be fun and said that can't happen if his appearance suggests the contrary.

"We're having fun," he said. "We're not acting too serious here. It's a whole different culture."