Tuesday, April 12, 2011

TAZIKIED

I had a post drafted and ready to go today, until I got to work and my coworker told me this news:

NASHVILLE
IS
FINALLY
GETTING
A
TAZIKI'S
AND
IT'S
ONE
MILE
AWAY
FROM
ME

Are you kidding? Are you KIDDING!??!? I'm going to have to add a line in my budget JUST for this. I have heard they were opening one here ever since Keith (owner) told me he was looking for locations, when I called him to "rent" his restaurant for my mom's 50th birthday lunch. He told me he was looking out in Cool Springs which would be like driving from Samford to Chelsea for lunch.

"The high-profile space off West End that used to house chef Deb Paquette's Zola has been vacant for more than a year, but my Nashville Post colleague J.R. Lind reports in his Permit Patrol that it's going to be the first Nashville outpost of Taziki's, a Mediterranean chain out of Birmingham, Ala.

The chain isn't big, with less than a dozen locations, but it's getting ready to stake out Nashville and Chattanooga. A scan of the menu turns up a big assortment of Greek salads topped with various grilled meats (chicken, lamb, shrimp, tilapia), and there are gyros, familiar apps like hummus and grape leaves along with daily specials. It looks like some locations offer family dinners for takeout, including whole roasted chickens with a couple of sides.

Nashville is fairly well-supplied with locally owned spots for healthy Mediterranean fare, but not along the West End corridor. Probably due to premium rents, West End is a chain-heavy thoroughfare, with places like Which Wich and Chipotle not far from Taziki's future home."

Well I guess I know where I'm going for lunch every single day of the week for eternity! If you've never been and you live in Nashville, e-mail me and we'll go as soon as it opens!

*Update: I'm going to explain why I love this restaurant so much. The food is great but this restaurant means more to me than good food. I started working there in 2000 when it was one store on a busy part of highway 280. The owners, Keith and Amy, sponsored me in Junior Miss. My entire family - mother, father, sister, aunt, uncle and baby cousin - used to come stake out a large table outside, eat dinner and wait for me to get off work. There were three "amigos" (Chuy, Fernando and Joaquin) who helped me practice my Spanish before I went to Guatemala for a week in 2001 and 2002. "Solamente espaƱol!" they would say, and make me repeat what I needed. The first (and only) time I ever got a hicky, I made them a strawberry pie so they wouldn't tell my mother (she saw it the next day). Chuy and Joaquin have long-since moved on, but to this day when I go in the Taziki's Colonade (the best one) with my mom, Fernando still gives me extra feta and special fruit. I love eating there because the food is good, but so are the people.

9 comments:

  1. Hi Lindsay,

    I have happened upon your blog and find you completely hilarious. ALSO. I live in Nashville. ALSO, I love Taziki's. ALSO, I live near the location. Should we have a blog lunch date?

    Sincerely,
    Kelley Kirker
    www.orderly-conduct.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. We will definitely be going for lunch as soon as it opens. I will pick you up from work :)

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  3. totally jealous and laughing over the strawberry cake trade for keeping a hickey secret. there has got to be more to that story!

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  4. Yeah Lindsay, What is the story on that hickey?? You didn't confess that in your Confession blog...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kelley - yes, let's!!

    Mom don't act like you don't remember that. And it wasn't an Auburn confession... duh

    ReplyDelete
  6. I remember you making the pie...but you never told me why!! duh!!

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  7. Ok, not at ALL trying to burst your bubble- but, our Taziki's is not up to snuff with the Bham one. I sincerely hope you don't have that problem. If you do, set them straight- and come fix our's while you're at it! :)

    ReplyDelete

Oh goody!

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