Taziki's Mediterranean Café

Taziki's Mediterranean Café

A Taziki's Mediterranean Café in Suwanee, Georgia
Type	Franchise
Industry	Fast casual restaurant chain
Founded	1998 in Birmingham, Alabama
Founders	Keith and Amy Richards
Headquarters	Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Number of locations	82 in sixteen U.S. states (November 2017)
Products	Greek cuisine and Mediterranean cuisine
Revenue	$28,800,000 (2014)
Owners	Keith and Amy Richards
Website	tazikiscafe.com

Taziki's Mediterranean Café is a fast casual chain of franchised restaurants based in Birmingham, Alabama that purveys Greek and Mediterranean cuisine such as gyros, sandwiches, soups, and salads.

The restaurant's concept was devised by Keith and Amy Richards after a 1997 vacation in Greece. The first restaurant was a café that opened in 1998 at the Cahaba Mall Shopping Center (also known as the Colonnade) in Birmingham, Alabama. In April 2014, the chain had locations in nine U.S. states; total franchise sales were $28,800,000, with average sales of $1,100,000 per store. By November 2017, there were over 80 locations across 16 states.

The franchise was the first in the United States to earn REAL certification from the United States Healthful Food Council (USHFC). The certification is given to restaurants that serve vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and where the food is primarily prepared from scratch. The award recognises that the chain uses minimal processed foods, and give priority to local and organic ingredients. However, there is no way to accurately measure the REAL certification's health benefits or what it actually means to consumers.

According to a corporate spokesperson, every restaurant location supports at least one charitable organization. Nine of Taziki's locations partner with schools to offer Project Hope, styling "Hope" as an acronym for "Herbs Offering Personal Enrichment." This project provides special needs students with the opportunity to grow and package herbs that the local restaurant agrees to buy.