Keifer's Madison finally opens, holds ribbon cutting. See hours and menu here

Keifer's Madison location opening is finally here. The ribbon has been cut, the grills are sizzling and the pita is being served.

Several members of Madison's community and local government gathered Tuesday to watch Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler cut the yellow ribbon draped across the porch of the new Keifer's location.

The new location, after multiple soft openings, will officially open on May 1. Regular hours upon opening will be 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Sunday, store managers said.

A rebirth for Keifer's

Wife and husband duo Carly and Kevin Smith own the new Madison location. Growing up just outside of Brookhaven, Kevin has loved Keifer's dishes for a long time.

The new location marks Kevin's first venture into the restaurant business after previously working in IT. Carly, owner of the gift shop BellaChes, in the Renaissance shopping center in Ridgeland, is no stranger to the Madison business scene.

Carly, a Jackson native, said the opportunity to own the new Keifer's is particularly exciting given she loves the original location so much.

Chip Holden, general manager for the new location, called the Madison opening a "rebirth" for Keifer's. The original Keifer's in Jackson has been an established, beloved Mediterranean restaurant in the Metro area for more than 40 years. There is another Keifer's in downtown Jackson located on Capitol Street, which shares a name only with the other two locations.

Holden, who has worked at the Jackson Keifer's for 30 years, will eventually shift all his time to work at the Madison location.

The Madison community has been anxiously anticipating the new location's opening for over a year. Keifer's social media followers commented on almost every post for the past few months asking when the restaurant would open.

Hawkins-Butler, before cutting the ribbon, said the location received countless calls asking the same question in the past few months. The anticipated date was suggested by Keifer's many times on Facebook, but a solid opening remained a moving target.

Holden said the wait was due to the team wanting to make sure everything was perfect before opening. There was some delay as he tried to hire a good team of employees, but now that it's finished, he feels like a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.

"I slept better last night than I had in months," Holden said, jokingly.

Carly said even though the restaurant may have appeared completely finished from the outside, there were still several moving parts going on inside for the past few months.

Tuesday afternoon, under the bright sun, Hawkins-Butler stood on the Keifer's porch, ready to cut the ribbon. On either side of her stood members of the Madison Keifer's team and Madison government officials including several aldermen, Madison County Board of Supervisors Member Casey Brannon, Mississippi Representative Jill Ford, and several members of the Madison Fire Department.

The Smith's daughter, Ella Smith, 10, greeted the small crowd with a cheery "Thank you for coming," before helping Hawkins-Butler cut the ribbon using oversized gold-painted scissors.

How it started: Keifer's will break ground on new restaurant next week in Madison

What to expect

The new Keifer's emulates its predecessor is almost every way.

Walking into the Madison location, guests familiar with the original Jackson location may do a double take. The layout is extremely similar to the original Jackson location on Poplar Boulevard. Both are built to look and feel like a family home.

The same wooden doorways, hardwood floors and bookcases dotted with books and knick-knacks set the scene for the new location. The familiar yellow bricks and blue tablecloths paint the oversized wrap-around porch outside.

"We really wanted it to feel like Keifer's," Carly Smith said. "That's part of the why we raised the porch up above the parking lot level, so you still have that porch feel."

The menu, filled with gyros, wraps and fries, will remain the same as the original Jackson location.

There are subtle differences between the old and new location. Besides the newer structure and appliances, Holden said the porch is bigger than that of the Poplar Boulevard Jackson location in order to provide more seating.

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This extra seating is much-needed. In the days leading up to its official opening, the Madison Keifer's hosted several soft openings in which guests could sign up for a table online. Every seating was packed. On April 7, Keifer's posted on Facebook a chance to win four tickets to Tuesday's opening event. The post garnered nearly 5,000 comments.

Holden said the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive. He said several different people have said everything feels the exact same as the beloved original Jackson location; even the food is the same.

This repetition is not an accident. Holden and the Smith's took steps to ensure the new location would feel exactly like its predecessor. One of the cooks who worked at the original Jackson location for more than 30 years came over to work at the Madison location.

Got a news tip? Contact Mary Boyte at mboyte@jackson.gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Keifer's restaurant in Madison MS is open, holds ribbon cutting