Photo by Jon Anderson
Conor Plyler is general manager of the Taziki’s Mediterranean Grill in Vestavia Hills.
Conor Plyler is general manager of the Taziki’s Mediterranean Grill at 1425 Montgomery Highway in Park South Plaza in Vestavia Hills.
Q: Tell us briefly about the restaurant.
A: This is Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. I know that our owner is Keith Richards. It’s been here for about 26 years now. I know this restaurant’s been around for about five years, and we are absolutely Resone of the biggest Taziki’s in Birmingham for sure. This store is special because we are one of the only ones that does catering events around here. We cater like weddings and things like that. We have a specific guy that does that for us, and other Taziki’s around the whole world doesn’t do any of that stuff. We’re all about customer service. We’re all about the people We want people to keep coming back, so we do whatever we’ve got to do to impress our customers to get ‘em to keep coming back. We’re all about the quality food, too. I would say its’ more like a Southern Greek Mediterraean kind of food quality.
Q: What’s your favorite item on the menu and why?
A: My favorite item on the menu is the Beef Feast by far. Our beef is just — it’s to die for. It’s beef chuck shoulder, so it comes right off the shoulder, and if you cook it perfect, it’s just very juicy, very tender. We also serve it as a yuro as well. It’s very non-fatty at all. It’s very easy to eat. You don’t feel too full afterwards. The cut’s very tender. It’s just by far one of our favorites for sure.
Q: What sets you apart from your competition?
A: My staff. We have one of the most hard-working and loyal staff. They just do everything I need them to do. Also, the management around here is what keeps our employees wanting to come to work. I feel like our employees are one of the top-tier employees in Taziki’s. … I truly feel our employees are what sets us apart from other Taziki’s. And our catering is a huge part of our business for this store. And our dining room – we’re the only one that has these kind of doors (roll-up doors). The aesthetics here is different than a lot of the other Taziki’s.
Q: Is there anything new or upcoming?
A: Our falafel – we started it about a little over a month ago, and we’re keeping it as a menu item now because it became so popular. And we’re starting a new salad that’s going to be called the watermelon spinach salad. And we’re starting one of our new lamb burgers that’s called the whipped feta lamb burger. We’re very excited about that. We already sell the lamb burger. It’s basically the same thing, but we put whipped feta on top of it. We know it’s going to be a very popular items. Previously, we had one that had pimento cheese on it, and we had customers requesting to put whipped feta on it. The watermelon spinach salad we used to have years ago. It used to be called the hope salad. We’re bringing that one back to see how that’s going to do. I was not hear when we sold that one, so I don’t know exactly how popular it was, but I know that everybody’s very excited to bring that back.
Q: What’s your favorite part about being in this industry?
A: I would say a lot of the relationships I’ve made with people. Most of my close friends are from Taziki’s. I also met my girlfriend through Taziki’s. … I’m the type of person I can be a little shy sometimes, and so people coming up to me and introducing themselves and me introducing myself — it’s helped me become more open and helped me to want to talk more with people. So I really appreciate the opportunity I’ve had here. Taziki’s has been an absolutely a great job for me.
Q: Why did you get started in this industry?
A: Food service overall was something I’ve kind of always been with. I stepped away from it a little bit and didn’t really enjoy what I was doing at the time, which was delivering packages for the Postal Service. That was not very ideal for me, and I came back to the food industry, and it just clicked for me again. I ended up being an assistant manager at Moe’s, and my friend of mine worked here at Taziki’s, so he got me this job. I started out as the assistant manager and worked my way up to general manager. The food industry has just been something that’s always clicked for me. I’m very hands-on learning.
