Teriyaki Madness, a fast-casual restaurant serving Asian fare, is set to open its first location in West Hartford this week.
Owned and operated by Enfield-based Meraki Hospitality Group, the restaurant at 259 Prospect Ave. will have a soft opening on Thursday and a grand opening on Friday. It is located in Prospect Plaza, alongside a new Jersey Mike’s and a new Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Meraki CEO Ken Schanke said the restaurant, often referred to as “TMad”, will employ about two dozen people. The West Hartford location is his company’s fifth in the state, joining TMads in Avon, Enfield, Hamden and Manchester.
Meraki also owns four Jersey Mike’s restaurants, located in Enfield, Manchester, Middletown and Rocky Hill.
Schanke describes the fare at Teriyaki Madness as Asian fusion and said the concept was developed more than 20 years ago in Seattle. It now has 160 locations in three countries.
“Everything’s fresh, made to order,” he said. “The vegetables are all chopped fresh every day, so they’re not sitting in a steam table for when you get there.”
Because of that, the “minimum time to get an order is at least 10 minutes, because we’re going to blanch the vegetables and steam them for each order,” Schanke said.
The menu features Teriyaki bowls with chicken, beef, salmon and tofu, as well as appetizers like chicken eggrolls, crab rangoon and edamame. Schanke said most items can also be made gluten free.
Hours for the West Hartford location will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
