News

Taziki's names COO

Mike Smith, COO of Taziki's

January 15, 2020

Taziki's Mediterranean Café has promoted Mike Smith, former VP of operations, to COO. Before joining Taziki's, he was the VP of operations for Hootwinc (DBA Hooters) and served in a variety of different roles for the Hooters brand, where he was employed for close to 13 years. 

Under his leadership, Taziki's added Express Pick-up to innovate and improve the guest experience. Guests will benefit from using digital notification boards where they can see their orders are being prepared, and know when they are ready. Taziki's also reintroduced curbside through the Taziki's app, in multiple locations over the last two years.

"Taziki's call to action is really centered around guest experience and in the fast-casual segment, it's easy to prioritize speed over accuracy; but our focus is getting it right for the guest every time," Smith said in the release. "We are dedicated to informing our guests on Taziki's supply chain, ingredients and nutrition."

Smith has also placed a large focus on dietary trends and health and nutrition research as a large part of the guest experience improvement program. He's led the effort to change the layout in both Taziki's physical cook lines and innovate the point-of-sales systems to allow employees to make the maximum number of items.

Taziki's has more than 90 restaurant locations, spanning across 17 states.