FAIRMONT — Taziki’s Mediterranean Café is bringing hands-on restaurant experience to the campus of West Virginia University.

Taziki’s, now located in the Mountainlair Student Union in Morgantown, provides an on-campus laboratory setting and allows students to see the actual workings of the restaurant, said Nancy McIntyre, associate dean for academic affairs in the WVU College of Business and Economics.

Michael Bodnar, who graduated from the college’s MBA program, is one of the managing partners of Fresh Hospitality, which has invested in Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. Fresh Hospitality, based out of Birmingham, Ala., has been doing restaurant venture capital and growing chains for 20 years.

The primary mission of this enterprise is to find young entrepreneurs and give them the structure to be successful. Fresh Hospitality — along with Fresh Capital, which is another arm of the business — can provide the financing and intellectual capital to help a start-up restaurant concept become a chain, Bodnar said.

He said Fresh Hospitality became involved with Taziki’s Mediterranean Café, founded by Keith and Amy Richards, three years ago with the purpose of helping them expand into a national chain.

Taziki’s is classified as “fast casual,” which means it has freshly prepared food served in a fast-food environment. The restaurant offers very healthy, light and high-quality Mediterranean dishes.

“It fits the Mountainlair very well,” Bodnar said.

Taziki’s Mediterranean Café had a soft opening on Aug. 20, with WVU President James Clements as the first customer, and has had a very successful start, McIntyre said. A grand opening will be held in the future.

Bodnar said operations at Taziki’s went great during the first week of school, with “long lines every day.” Fresh Hospitality’s training staff is on site, and 40 students will ultimately be hired to work at the restaurant. Around 30 individuals are already employed there.

The profits from Taziki’s will be donated to the WVU College of Business and Economics in support of its hospitality initiative, whether it be for scholarships, internships, hiring faculty or obtaining resources to expand, McIntyre said.

She explained that the hospitality initiative is a new endeavor. A couple years ago, the college began researching and trying to determine if there was a demand for this type of program.

Tourism is the second-largest industry in West Virginia, and WVU, as a land-grant university, takes its responsibility in the state very seriously, McIntyre said. While the state has a number of high school programs designed to provide hospitality education, WVU realized that there was a need in the market to provide a college-level program.

She said the initiative is targeting hospitality at the management level, rather than culinary work. Students will graduate with a degree in management and initially an area of emphasis in hospitality, which will include four classes plus an internship.

Those courses are introduction to hospitality, restaurant management, hotel management and tourism. Individuals who choose an emphasis in hospitality would take the same classes as any business student, but would add the hospitality courses on top of that, McIntyre said.

The College of Business and Economics has been offering individual classes related to hospitality for the past year and a half. This semester, 28 students are enrolled in the hotel management course, and 13 individuals are in restaurant management. She said the college knows there is a demand for hospitality education because every class that is offered fills up.

The College of Business and Economics is in the process of submitting the syllabi and other paperwork to form this new area of emphasis, which won’t officially be offered until the spring semester, McIntyre said. The faculty envisions creating a hospitality major and a hospitality focus in the MBA program in the future, and would also like to partner with other schools within the university as the hospitality program grows.

Doug VanScoy, also a WVU College of Business and Economics graduate, is a longtime business partner of Bodnar’s and has been active in the restaurant industry. VanScoy and Bodnar are both on the advisory board for the college’s hospitality program. When that program was kicking off, they both decided that they wanted to get involved and help better the initiative.

Bodnar said the primary agenda of the hospitality program is to develop a curriculum that is effective for the industry, have industry involvement and have internships available for students. As part of the restaurant industry, VanScoy and Bodnar felt they could add something else: a live lab where students can see the elements of a restaurant and how they work.

In addition to Taziki’s, a number of restaurants and other entities in Morgantown, such as the Waterfront Place Hotel, have given the college access to their operations. The hospitality program will provide training and hopefully keep students in the state, McIntyre said.

“I just think it’s a wonderful opportunity for the students here in West Virginia,” she said.

 E-mail Jessica Borders at jborders@timeswv.com.