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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe fast-casual restaurant chain Taziki’s Mediterranean Café has opened its first Indiana location, at 4025 E. 82nd St., just west of Allisonville Road.
Andrejs Kreger is the managing partner for the location, which opened for business Tuesday. The 3,100-square-foot restaurant is part of the Crossing Pointe Shoppes development that was built in 2017.
Kreger said he hopes eventually to have five Indianapolis-area units: “We’ve already started looking for other locations.”
He’s considering locations around Indianapolis, including downtown; as well as in Hamilton, Hendricks and Boone counties.
A Cleveland native, Kreger is an Indiana University graduate whose professional experience includes owning restaurants in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Taziki’s serves lunch and dinner with a menu that includes traditional Mediterranean items such as gyros, taziki dip and Greek salads along with items like deli sandwiches, grilled salmon and chicken salad. The restaurant also offers catering and take-out options including dinner for four with a whole baked chicken.
Items are prepared fresh in-house, and the restaurants do not have freezers, fryers or microwave ovens.
Taziki’s founders, the husband-and-wife team of Keith and Amy Richards, opened their first restaurant in 1998. The Indianapolis restaurant is the company’s 92nd location. Its other restaurants are in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The magazine Inc. named Taziki’s to its 2018 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing U.S. private companies. According to the list, Taziki’s saw 58 percent revenue growth from 2014 to 2017, with 2017 revenues of $26 million.
Two other Mediterranean-themed fast-casual chains have recently signaled their interest in the Indianapolis market.
Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, a Colorado-based chain with 30 locations, has signed an area development agreement with Lee Kleiner and Brian Kahn of Janes Franchising LLC. Kleiner and Kahn, who both live in Carmel, are currently scouting locations in Hamilton County and the north side of Indianapolis for their first Garbanzo Mediterranean. The two plan to identify other franchisees to open a total of 25 locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio over the next five years.
And Chicago-based Naf Naf Middle Eastern Grill has signed a development deal with Indianapolis-based 316 Investments, which is owned by experienced franchise operators Greg Willman of Carmel and Phil Salsbery of Indianapolis. The two plan to open multiple Indianapolis-area units and 10 total around the state over the next several years.
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