Zoës Kitchen
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| Restaurant | |
| Traded as | : ZOES |
| Industry | Fast Casual |
| Founded | 1995 in Homewood, Alabama |
| Founder | Marcus and Zoë Cassimus |
| Headquarters | Plano, Texas, U.S. |
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Number of locations
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171 stores |
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Key people
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Kevin Miles (CEO) |
| Products |
Sandwiches Pitas Salads Soups Kebabs Other food products |
| Website | zoeskitchen |
Zoës Kitchen is a fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Plano, Texas, United States. Serving a menu of variety of chicken salad, pasta salad, pitas and grilled chicken sandwiches, the chain has grown to include 203 locations across 17 states with plans to expand further. Zoës’ menu features Mediterranean-inspired comfort food with made-from-scratch recipes using fresh ingredients. Kevin Miles (CEO), who joined Zoës in 2009, succeeded Greg Dollarhyde as president in March 2011.
Zoës Kitchen was originally incorporated in Jefferson County Probate Court in June 1995 as Zoe's Kitchen, Inc. Founded by Zoë and Marcus Cassimus. Originally, the restaurants were not franchised, with Cassimus retaining a 51 percent ownership stake in all newly opened locations.
Its first location would open in October 1995 in downtown Homewood. A second location opening in the Riverchase section of Hoover in 1999 and a third in downtown Birmingham in March 2001. The restaurant would continue its expansion with the opening of its first store outside the Birmingham area in Tuscaloosa in May 2001 and its first out-of-state location in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall of 2001. By 2006, Zoës had expanded to sixteen restaurants, with eight located in Alabama and others located in Phoenix, Nashville, Memphis, Baton Rouge and Destin.
With 20 stores open by 2007, Cassimus would sell a majority ownership stake to Brentwood Associates of Los Angeles. Following the purchase, Cassimus announced that he would remain as chief executive, the company would remain headquartered in Birmingham and that the menu would not be affected. Additionally it was revealed that the sale could potentially result in the opening of 200 new franchises over the next five years. By Spring 2008 GE Capital Solutions loaned the company $10 million to allow for the development of 50 new stores across the southeast and southwest.
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