Cava, a popular Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain, recently opened its first Manatee County location.
The restaurant is located at 7145 State Road 64 E., Suite 101, in the Marketplace at Heritage Harbour shopping plaza anchored by Costco near Interstate 75 and State Road 64.
Cava’s menu features chicken shawarma, lamb, steak, falafel and classic side dips such as harissa, red pepper hummus, tzatziki, roasted eggplant, crazy feta and regular hummus.
Shawarma is a marinated meat stacked vertically on a rotating spit, while harissa is a hot chili pepper paste from North Africa and tzatziki is a Greek yogurt-based sauce.
Dishes are customizable and come in either a bowl or pita.
What is CAVA’s history?
Ike Grigoropoulos, Dimitri Moshovitis and Ted Xenohristos, who are three childhood friends, partnered with Brett Schulman to open the first Cava in Maryland in 2010, according to company history.
There are 439 total locations, 72 are new Cava restaurants that opened in 2025, CNBC reported.
While it is the first Manatee County location, it’s the area’s second. Cava has a restaurant at 5248 University Parkway in Sarasota’s University Station shopping center, which is anchored by Whole Foods.
What else is at the shopping center?
The upscale grocery chain is one of several future tenants at the Marketplace at Heritage Harbour, too.
The shopping center is home to Target, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Hobby Lobby, Seasons 52, LongHorn Steakhouse and Miller’s Ale House, and is planning to open Panda Express, Chick-fil-A, Cold Stone, Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza, Qdoba Mexican Eats and more in the future.
Cava is open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information, visit www.Cava.com.
Cava is now open at The Marketplace in Heritage Harbor shown on Feb. 25, 2026.
(Tiffany Tompkins/ttompkins@bradenton.com)
Dining and Cooking