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Ted Xenohristos, co-founder and chief idea officer of Cava, drew inspiration from his immigrant dad and mom’ Greek heritage and the meals he ate rising up. What started as a humble restaurant inside an previous Russian bakery in Rockville, Maryland, blossomed right into a nationwide model with 380 places throughout 28 states and Washington, D.C.
“We needed to do it for an inexpensive worth and [offer] one thing that individuals might share,” Xenohristos says. “We constructed that first restaurant with our naked arms. Every part [was] from the Greenback Retailer, Goal, Residence Items.”
The primary few weeks of enterprise had been full of uncertainty and lengthy hours. Xenohristos and Cava CEO Brett Schulman poured their power into developing the model’s first location, constructing it from the bottom up. With no advertising price range, they relied as a substitute on one thing extra highly effective: authenticity and hospitality.
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“We used our Mediterranean hospitality that we grew up figuring out, with no advertising price range, with out indicators exterior, with no POS system,” Xenohristos says. “We gave individuals free issues — free drinks, free meals, free dessert — and so they finally advised different individuals, and earlier than you knew it, that little restaurant had a extremely lengthy line.”
As phrase unfold and momentum constructed, the founders realized they’d tapped into one thing a lot larger than a single restaurant. In simply over six months, they opened a second location and expanded operations to incorporate a retail line of dips and spreads, bringing Mediterranean flavors into grocery shops.
Regardless of its speedy rise as certainly one of Yelp’s fastest-growing manufacturers of 2025, Cava by no means strayed from its core values of generosity and Mediterranean hospitality.
“One of many causes we began this enterprise was to maintain individuals and to alter the tradition,” Xenohristos says. “We love meals, we needed to share it, however we actually needed to alter how individuals had been handled. It begins with that.”
The model’s mission assertion is “to deliver coronary heart, well being and humanity to meals.”
The corporate’s leaders display coronary heart by caring for visitors and employees, well being by way of contemporary Mediterranean components and humanity by fostering connection and group inside and outdoors the corporate.
“All these issues collectively preserve that tradition alive,” Xenohristos says. “We nonetheless work onerous to execute on that dream, to have a higher tradition and restaurant.”
Making tradition a cornerstone of the enterprise contains offering significant worker advantages, reminiscent of tuition reductions, household planning help, accessible healthcare and psychological well being sources. Cava additionally hosts an annual convention designed to foster connection and collaboration amongst basic managers.
This tradition extends to the buyer expertise. Even within the fast-casual eating area, Cava’s crew finds methods to create significant human connections. One such initiative is the “love button,” a instrument that empowers workers to cowl a buyer’s meal in the event that they discover somebody having a tough day.
Xenohristos says this initiative is all about “giving our crew members the instruments to have the ability to share that generosity that is ingrained in us and our tradition.”
Whereas no journey is with out its challenges, Cava’s values proceed to push the model ahead, redefining how visitors expertise meals and hospitality. “As we proceed to develop, the extra we will do what we got down to do, which was change the restaurant business,” Xenohristos says.
His recommendation for present and future enterprise leaders is evident:
- Lead with objective and coronary heart. Constructing a enterprise rooted in hospitality, care and connection creates lasting influence — for each your crew and your prospects.
- Make tradition your cornerstone. A considerate worker expertise does greater than retain expertise; it distinguishes your model.
- Develop with out dropping your roots. Regardless of how large you scale, keep grounded within the mission that began all of it. Authenticity is your most precious asset.
- Empower generosity. Give your crew instruments to care about their work, individuals and objective. Small acts of kindness create large ripple results.
- Do not simply observe the business — change it. Cava did not simply open eating places. It constructed a motion round meals, humanity and tradition, proving that chains could be each scalable and mission-driven.
Watch the episode above to listen to instantly from Xenohristos, and subscribe to Behind the Evaluation for extra from new enterprise homeowners and reviewers each Wednesday.
Editorial contributions by Jiah Choe and Kristi Lindahl
