Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe started with a trip to Greece. Founders Keith and Amy Richards came home to Birmingham, Alabama, taken with the food and with a welcome that reminded them of Southern hospitality. They opened the first Taziki's in 1998 to share that experience. By 2022 the fast casual chain had opened its 100th restaurant, serving guests across 17 states.
Fresh KDS was in Taziki's kitchens for more than a decade of that growth.
Paper tickets couldn't keep up
Like most young restaurants, Taziki's started on paper tickets. That worked while the chain was small. As it grew, paper became a problem. Tickets went missing between the register and the kitchen. Handwritten orders led to mistakes on the line. And because tickets were worked strictly in the order they came in, guests waited longer than they needed to.
Then orders started arriving from more places at once: dine-in, takeout, large catering orders and third-party delivery. The kitchen spent its time sorting piles of paper, and communication between the crew and management broke down. Wrong orders meant refunds, which cost Taziki's both money and guests' patience.
Taziki's needed something in the middle: one system that could take in every order and share the load across its cooks and crew.
Finding a KDS that kept up
Taziki's tried kitchen display systems from several companies first. None of them lasted. The kitchen's problems kept changing, and those systems didn't.
Fresh KDS stood out because the kitchen is all Fresh works on. Regular updates kept adding features that solved problems Taziki's was running into, and some it hadn't spotted yet. For leadership, that meant a system that could grow with the business.
"One of the key things for a growing restaurant is technology. Fresh KDS came along and helped empower our business to structure what it does and prepared it to scale."
- Dan Simpson | CEO, Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
For general managers: faster training
A system only scales if every store can learn it. Fast casual kitchens see a lot of new faces, and every hour spent teaching someone a screen is an hour not spent on the food. Fresh KDS was simple enough that general managers could get new and experienced staff up to speed quickly, then put training time where it mattered: the menu.
"Fresh KDS makes it easy to train both old and new employees in the restaurant industry."
- Ringo Martinez | General Manager, Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
For the crew: one clear line to the front
On the line, the change was about knowing what to make and when. Orders from the register went straight to the screens, with every modifier spelled out and each order's status in view. When a station started to fall behind, the screens showed where help was needed. No more reading handwriting, and no more tickets lost on the way back.
"I found that using Fresh KDS is a great way for our team to communicate from the kitchen to the cashier. Fresh KDS is effective, easy to use, and really organized."
- Gabriella | Team member, Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
Faster and more accurate
For a fast casual brand, speed is part of the promise. Fresh KDS gave Taziki's something paper never could: data on how long orders took to complete, and where they slowed down. The team used it to streamline its menu and operations, so orders kept going out quickly and correctly as the chain grew.
A 10+ year partnership
Over more than ten years, Fresh KDS became part of how Taziki's runs its kitchens, and the relationship grew with it.
"Fresh is more than a vendor, they are part of the Taziki's family. I can say without a doubt that Fresh KDS has been integral to our success, and that we would not be where we are today without this partnership."
- Dan Simpson | CEO, Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe
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