Ted's Montana Grill is an American restaurant chain specializing in bison

Bison

Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...

. The company was founded by media entrepreneur and environmentalist Ted Turner

Ted Turner

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...

 and restaurateur George McKerrow Jr. with the help of corporate chef Chris Raucci as a for-profit effort to stop the extinction of the American bison. The first Ted's Montana Grill opened in January 2002 in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, U.S. Today it has 46 restaurants in 16 states. Its first Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

 location opened in Bozeman

Bozeman, Montana

Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...

 in June 2008. The company is based in Atlanta.

All bison served is National Bison Association

National Bison Association

The National Bison Association is a "non-profit association of producers, processors and marketers" of bison. It was formed in 1995 through a merger of two other organizations, the American Bison Association and the National Buffalo Association. Its nearly 1,500 members come from all 50 US states...

-certified; the menu includes several other kinds of meats and vegetables. As part of the restaurant's unusual but aggressive approach to environmentalism, it "re-introduced the paper straw" (not produced in the United States since 1970) to avoid using plastic. They have also eco-friendly bathrooms. The store uses dual flush toilet

Dual flush toilet

A dual-flush toilet is a variation of the flush toilet that uses two buttons or handles to flush different levels of water. It was invented by Australian inventor Bruce Thompson in 1980 while working for Caroma, and although the first generation dual-flush toilet caught on, a redesign in 1993 cut...

s, and eco-friendly soap.