CAVA Mediterranean chain opens in former Overland Park Zoe’s Kitchen space

CAVA serves a Mediterranean-style menu with choose your own bowl options.

Fast-casual Mediterranean chain CAVA has opened one of its first Johnson County locations near Oak Park Mall in Overland Park.

Where exactly? Located at 11895 W. 95th St., CAVA opened earlier this month in a former Zoe’s Kitchen next to BIBIBOP Asian Grill and Freezing Moo.

A CAVA in south Overland Park, at 6405 W. 135th Street in the Corbin Park shopping center, opened in August.
The two restaurants are CAVA’s first Kansas locations.

Zooming out: It’s one of a number of changes in the area with new eateries expanding or moving in to Oak Park Mall itself and the surrounding area.

Also looking to expand within Oak Park Mall soon is the owner of Acapulco Paradise, who is planning to open a new Mexican-style cantina in the mall in October.
Likewise, AME Golf and Brew, a sports bar with golf simulators, is also expecting to open in the mall this fall.

The menu: In order to allow customers to “customize a meal to their taste,” CAVA’s mediterranean-style menu focuses on the build-your-own bowl concept.

Patrons first choose a base of either salad, grains, pita or rice, followed by a spread, such as spicy harissa or roasted eggplant hummus.
They then select a protein, like spicy lamb meatballs, harissa honey or falafel, before adding toppings and a dressing.
The menu also features seasonal juices made fresh in-house each day, according to CAVA’s website.

CAVA sells several of its sauces at Whole Foods Market. Photo via CAVA’s Facebook page.

Additional details: In addition to its restaurants, the Mediterranean chain also sells several of its dips, spreads and sauces retail at Whole Foods Market.

Items sold at the health-f00d grocery store chain include its crazy feta, organic caramelized onion hummus, roasted eggplant dip and roasted red pepper hummus.

CAVA acquisition of Zoe’s Kitchen

CAVA’s opening at Oak Park comes just a few years after Zoe’s Kitchen was acquired by the privately-held CAVA Group Inc. in 2018 when the two combined companies, according to a 2018 CAVA news release.

Now, the company has decided to close many of the Zoe’s locations and turn some of them into CAVA locations.
With the company’s $300 million acquisition of Zoe’s, the chain grew from 66 to 326 locations across the country.
In 2006, first-generation Greek Americans Ted Xenohristos, Ike Grigoropoulos and Dimitri Moshovitis launched the first CAVA in Rockville, Md.