-- The staff has been prepped, the tables are set, and owner John Cassimus will open the doors today to his gleaming, new Maki Fresh restaurant in Birmingham's Wells Fargo Tower.

The downtown location is the second in Birmingham for the fast-casual Asian dining concept founded by Cassimus, the former CEO of Zoe's Kitchen. He opened the original Maki Fresh in the Cahaba Village retail center off U.S. 280 in 2008, later added another location in Atlanta, and has another coming early this summer in Montgomery.

Located just off the main lobby of the Wells Fargo Tower, the newest Maki Fresh is a sleek, vertical space with a huge marble wall on one side and a sidewalk view of Fifth Avenue North on the other.

Cassimus designed the restaurant himself, but he says he already had a great space with which to work.

"This space is really a beautiful space," he says. "I think my favorite Zoe's that I ever did was a block away at One Federal Place. It's just a beautiful space inside, and it looks as good as it did 12 years ago. And this could go down as probably my favorite Maki Fresh, for sure.

"Just to have a marble wall that's 17-, 18-, 20-feet tall as one of the four sides of your building and glass 30 feet up on the other side is very unusual. So having all of that open light and that linear space and modern feel lends itself really well to what we are doing with Maki Fresh. And it goes with the food and the colors."

Guests will place their orders at the counter and then seats themselves. The dining area will accommodate about 45 guests, with additional seating available outside.

"We have a huge patio area," Cassimus says. "We'll start with about 25 seats and we'll probably end up having 50 out there this summer, which will double our capacity. And it's facing north, which is great, so it's always going to be shaded, and it has an overhang so you don't have to worry about rain."

The Maki Fresh lunch menu

features rice bowls, sushi, sliders and salads -- with almost everything priced under $10. (For the full lunch menu,

.)

In the mornings, Maki Fresh will offer a limited breakfast menu that includes wraps and breakfast bowls, plus muffins, grits, granola and a fruit-and-yogurt parfait -- with everything under $6. (For the full breakfast menu,

.)

Both lunch and breakfast orders are available for take-out, and Maki Fresh also offers a separate catering menu.

"We are going to do a lot of catering, which we are excited about," Cassimus says. "With all of the office buildings around us, that's going to be a big part of what we do."

For today and next Monday and Tuesday, Maki Fresh will open for lunch service only, but the restaurant will begin serving breakfast next Wednesday, Cassimus says.

Hours will be 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with breakfast served from 7 to 10 a.m.

The address is 420 20th St. North, and the phone number to place pick-up orders is 205-458-4040.

Justin Curry, who previously worked at the Zoe's Kitchen in Homewood's SoHo Square, is the manager.

For more information, visit the Maki Fresh website.

To see a sneak preview of the new Maki Fresh -- including photos from a preview party Thursday night -- click on the slideshow at the top of this story.

UPDATED at 12:56 p.m. CDT on Friday, May 16, 2014, to specify that Maki Fresh will begin serving breakfast on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.