Taziki’s Mediterranean Café — which has Southeast Tennessee restaurants in downtown Chattanooga, East Brainerd and Cleveland — is expanding next month by adding another local eatery at the Shoppes at Hamill complex in Hixson.
Franchise owner Brad Emendorfer, who grew up working in his father’s restaurant and opened Chattanooga’s first Taziki’s in 2011, said he has been eager to expand the franchise into the Hixson market for years after adding a second unit in Chattanooga on Gunbarrel Road in 2013. Although an initial plan was delayed when the franchise expanded into Cleveland first, Emendorfer said an opportunity to open a new eatery near Northgate mall opened up last year after California Tortilla (which opened in 2019) shut down.
“Our strategy was to establish ourselves and our identity downtown where people work and then build our catering and lunch and dinner crowd where people live in East Brained and Hixson,” Emendorfer said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We try to offer something for everybody in the family, and with more people being more health conscious and looking for something different, we see a lot of opportunity in Chattanooga.”
Taziki’s is an American fast casual chain of franchised restaurants based in Birmingham that purveys Greek and Mediterranean cuisine such as gyros, sandwiches, soups, and salads.
The new 2,500-square-foot restaurant in Hixson will be the smallest of the three Taziki’s that Emendorfer has opened, but he said the new restaurant will still include 60 or more seats inside and another 12 to 15 outside. Emendorfer expects to generate a lot of pick-up and delivery business from the new location.