With more than 60 locations around the country, Washington D.C.-based restaurant chain CAVA will open the doors to its first San Diego area restaurant within Encinitas Town Center on Monday, October 1, bringing with it modern, authentic, and vibrant Mediterranean food made from scratch in-house every day. The expanding brand will also add additional locations to the San Diego area, scheduled to open branches in Del Mar and Scripps Ranch in the next two years.
CAVA was founded in 2011 by childhood friends Ted Xenohristos, Ike Grigoropoulos, and Executive Chef Dimitri Moshovitis. The restaurant was created to bring Mediterranean food to a wider audience, using ingredients made from scratch in-house every day to prepare customizable dishes like salads, grain bowls, pita sandwiches and entree plates. The menu is specially created to deliver an ultra-personalized experience for each and every guest - featuring over 50 offerings and 58 million possible combinations of bold ingredients and flavors.
This opening of the Encinitas location marks CAVA’s first in San Diego, and 67th nationwide. Currently the brand has 10 locations throughout southern California. The restaurant will be 2,684 square-foot in size and will seat 52 people. CAVA Encinitas will open with a menu featuring the brand’s Fall Menu, which includes seasonal roasted vegetables of Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Cauliflower, as well as topping like Carrots and Currants, a seasonally-inspired Greek Minestrone soup, a Red Pepper Chickpea dressing. A second San Diego CAVA location is slated to open in early 2019 in Del Mar at 3722 Paseo Place within the One Paseo mixed-use community, with a third planned for a new development off the 15 Freeway in Scipps Ranch at Watermark in late 2020.
Prior to opening day - CAVA will host "Community Day" on Sunday, September 30, providing free lunch between the hours of 10:45am and 1pm and dinner from 5-7pm. While all meals will be complimentary, the restaurant will be asking for donations to benefit local non-profit partner, The Ecology Center, whose mission is to find ways to promote healthy communities and create abundant futures for all. During community day, The Ecology Center will also be on hand conducting hands-on garden lessons for attendees through a garden pop-up that will transform a portion of the parking lot into a living classroom which will include 6-7 planter boxes of herbs, vegetables, and flowers as well as 6-8 fruit trees.
CAVA will be located at 1042 N El Camino Real within the Encinitas Town Center. Starting October 1, the eatery will be open daily from 10:45am-10pm. For more information, visit cava.com.