photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Longboards Wraps and Bowls plans to locate in this vacant space near 25th and Iowa streets in south Lawrence.

I’ve never thought much about what a surfer packs for lunch. (Something waterproof, I suppose.) Soon, Lawrence diners can explore for themselves as a small chain restaurant that is all about surfer culture opens on south Iowa Street.

Longboards Wraps and Bowls is in the process of opening at 2540 Iowa St., which is the shopping center that houses First Watch and is just north of the Popeyes restaurant. (Now, that’s a cartoon thought: What hilarity would ensue if Popeye encountered a surfer dude?)

Longboards touts its wraps as its key menu item. The restaurant has a selection of about two dozen different wraps, both grilled and chilled. The menu lists several varieties of steak and chicken, but also offers pork, turkey and crab offerings.

In addition to its regular menu items, it looks like the restaurant frequently has limited-time wraps that get a bit on the wild side, like a current one that includes pork tenderloin, chicken, bacon, four-cheese alfredo, a hard-boiled egg, mozzarella, Doritos, and lemon-garlic aioli. (I’m down for eating that and then Hanging 10 — on the scale.)

If you like your wraps a little more red, white and blue, you just missed out on the restaurant’s “Taste of Freedom” Fourth of July offering — which might allow for the word “gnarly” to be used in proper context, given that it features smoked brisket, bacon, garlic potato salad, sriracha baked beans, egg, pepper jack, and potato chips.

And what would a wrap be without a sauce or two — or 20. The restaurant offers nearly 20 sauces, broken into mild and spicy categories. Teriyaki and chipotle ranch (yes, you can surf with your cowboy hat, although the boots are problematic) are among the offerings on the mild side. A Thai chili vinaigrette and wasabi mayo are among the featured spicy sauces. About a dozen sides also are offered, including pasta and potato salads, various rice dishes, hummus, spring rolls and something called Maui onion chips, which appear to be a Hawaiian brand of kettle-style potato chips.

In addition to wraps, sauces and sides, the restaurant features about a half-dozen bowl offerings that are a mix of rice along with various meats or vegetarian proteins, like tofu. In addition, look for some Thai and Vietnamese versions that replace the rice with noodles.

In fact, look for a lot of different cultural styles at Longboards. The restaurant chain is actually Kansas City-based, but the restaurant’s founder grew up on the Pacific Coast before moving to Kansas City and entering the restaurant industry, according to the company’s website. The love of surfing made the trip too, and now the restaurant’s philosophy has a bit of the same feel as one of those Beach Boys songs that also serve as a geography lesson with the number of different locales mentioned. Longboards, in describing its menu, says it is looking to create “the best flavors of the Pacific coasts of Hawaii, California, Japan, China, Mexico and beyond.”

The Lawrence location will be the company’s eighth store, but only its second outside of the immediate KC metro area. The company has a store in St. Joseph, Mo. while the rest are in Kansas City proper or one of the connected suburbs.

No word yet on when the restaurant is scheduled to open, but remodeling work is underway, and the company is listing the Lawrence location as “coming soon” on its website.