By: MADELEINE JOHNSON
July 20th, marked the grand opening of Meddys, the newest addition to downtown Santa Fe. After a soft opening, during which they offered one free meal per customer each day, they have officially opened their doors for business.
The friendly welcome and warm, cozy atmosphere of this Mediterranean restaurant sits next to Sonic.
As soon as the front door opens, the staff greets all who walk through the door, telling them, ‘Welcome to Meddys,’ and the atmosphere draws you in. It’s a warm and welcoming space for everyone to enjoy. The feeling they have created in Meddys restaurant as a whole has found its way into this location thanks to their designer, Stephanie.
Corporate Onboarding Officer, Ainsley Overheul has been working to help train and bring Meddys up to speed. She was ecstatic about the soft opening turnout, commenting, “We received great feedback from the community, especially through the soft opening. This has been the busiest soft opening we’ve ever had, so we were just like amazed by the turnout.”
As far as the service goes, Meddys pride themselves on being a full-service restaurant, even with their counter ordering system. They take care of bringing food, getting refills and cleaning off the tables.
Overheul stated, “We actually do it completely different. We are a full-service restaurant and we just happen to have an order-in counter, so I think that’s something really great about Meddys is our service standards. You are getting your drinks refilled, your complimentary pitta, your table should be bussed, pre-bussed, everything should be brought out to you, which I think is truly unique about Meddys.
Meddys' menu has a unique feature that is not common among most restaurants and that is their guided bank at the bottom of their menu.
The menu displays what dishes are vegan-friendly, vegetarian-friendly, what has halal meat, dairy-free and gluten-free. Each one has a distinct color that correlates to the items on the menu.
Overheul suggested that new customers to Meddys start with the 'Meddys Main Plate.'
The dish comes with a choice of protein (chicken, steak, or lamb), served with roasted veggies, dressed with a mixed herb garnish and your choice of a side (hummus, baba ganoush, Spanish eggplant, garlicky potatoes, shoestring fries, rice, tomato soup, mushroom soup, lentil soup, tabbouleh, mediterranean salad, fattoush salad, pitta bread or chips, roasted or fresh veggies).
When asked about what they strive for, Overhaul said, “All of our service standards I think are the biggest thing that we focus on. I am actually a trainer as well and we do roughly 3-4 days of training just outlining our expectations, our critical drivers for service and much more. When you come to Meddys, we want to not only obviously meet your expectations, but we want to exceed them.”
The next time you are downtown, stop by Meddys. There is something for everyone, especially with their rewards app that gives free desserts or free hummus.
To see how Meddys came to be, check out: Meddys- About Us
