1. New tenants open at Midtown
Three businesses open in fall with more to come
By Patrick Rupinski Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 3:30 a.m.
Dusty Compton | Tuscaloosa News
Lucca boutique, which opened in November, sells contemporary women’s apparel and accessories. It is one of several
new retailers that have opened at Midtown Village in the past few months.
TUSCALOOSA | Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe, a Birmingham-based casual-dining
restaurant chain, plans to open a new restaurant in Tuscaloosa’s Midtown Village early
next year.
It is one of several new businesses to come recently to the 350,000-square-foot
shopping center and residential development on McFarland Boulevard.
In November, two new businesses — Lucca, a boutique, and Wings U, a restaurant —
opened at Midtown. And in September, Nation Star Mortgage opened at the center.
Randa McMinn, a spokeswoman for Cypress Equities, which developed and operates
Midtown, said another retailer will open at the shopping village early next year.
She declined to identify the retailer, saying it was not ready to announce its plans.
Taziki’s, meanwhile, has signed a lease and will open in a 3,236-square-foot space near
Kobe Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar. Interior construction for Taziki’s is expected to
start before the end of the year.
“They are an established restaurant operator that will bring a new type of food to the
center and to the Tuscaloosa area,” said Stephen Schmidt, vice president of development
for Cypress Equities.
The Midtown Taziki’s will be the chain’s eighth restaurant in the state. It has six
restaurants in the Birmingham area and a restaurant in Huntsville. It also has a

2. restaurant in Little Rock, Ark., and at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W. Va.,
and plans to open a restaurant soon in Chattanooga, Tenn., according to its website.
“Our restaurant concept will fill the void of fresh Mediterranean fare at Midtown Village
and matches that of what the center has to offer the public, as far as signature shops and
restaurants,” Taziki’s President Keith Richards said.
He said Taziki’s will feature an assortment of Greek staples like hummus,
Mediterranean salads, gyros, deli sandwiches, grilled meats and fish and side dishes.
As for the other recently opened shops, Lucca is a locally owned boutique that features
contemporary women’s apparel and accessories, said owner Ashley Adams. It opened
Nov. 3 and is near Best Buy.
Wings U was opened Nov. 16 by Bob Baumhower, who owns Baumhower’s Wings.
Located across the parking lot from Iguana Grill, Wings U features New York-style
pizza, wings, burgers, cheese steaks, salads, po-boys and other items.
Midtown Village was the last major retail center built in Tuscaloosa. Its first store,
Circuit City, opened in October 2007 but closed a little more than a year later when the
Circuit City chain went bankrupt. Best Buy moved into that space last year. Midtown’s
other major anchor store is Barnes & Noble. The shopping center has about 40 other
retailers and restaurants. When Midtown opened, there was an expectation that it would
quickly fill with retailers, but the recession hit less than a year later, causing many
retailers to cancel expansion plans or put them on hold.
A site map on Midtown’s website shows about 20 retail spaces available.
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