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Fast-casual Mediterranean chain CAVA is opening its first Ohio location in Columbus.While the company hasn’t confirmed the address, a building permit suggests the restaurant will take over the former Shake Shack at 1370 Polaris Pkwy.CAVA has been recognized as a fast-growing and popular healthy food chain nationally.
CAVA, a national fast-casual chain that serves up bowls of grains, greens, meats, veggies, and Mediterranean toppings and sauces, is finally coming to Columbus.
A CAVA spokesperson confirmed the company’s plans to The Dispatch but wouldn’t confirm a location or offer details on its timetable for opening.
A building permit application submitted June 27 to the Columbus Department of Building and Zoning Services, however, describes work planned at 1370 Polaris Pkwy. for a project identified as “Cava-Polaris.”
The address on the Far North Side is the former location of a Shake Shack restaurant that was closed in September 2024.
Childhood friends Ike Grigoropoulos, Dimitri Moshovitis and Ted Xenohristos opened their first CAVA restaurant in 2010 in Bethesda, Maryland, and their company now operates 455 locations in 28 states. This will be the first Ohio restaurant.
Yelp identified CAVA in April 2024 as the nation’s fastest-growing restaurant brand based on new locations added to its site, consumer interest and searches by its users. Datassential, a company that tracks food-service companies, named CAVA as the nation’s favorite healthy food chain in June.
In Columbus, the chain will join a segment of the fast-casual restaurant market currently dominated by locally based Mediterranean restaurants. Brassica, which opened in the Short North 10 years ago, received a minority investment from Chipotle in October 2024 to expand beyond its seven restaurants in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.
Columbus-based Agapé Mediterranean got its start in January 2021, just a couple miles east of the likely CAVA location on Polaris Parkway. It has five locations now after expanding to Grandview Heights, Gahanna, Dublin and Lewis Center.
Dining Reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.