As a born-and-raised Southern California girl, there are a couple of things I yearn for when Northern California calls me back to school. I long for the beach, the sun shining on my face 365 days a year, a giant Target in every city and, of course, my beloved Cava.
If your tongue hasn’t yet had the pleasure of being acquainted with the dynamic flavors of Cava, let me give you a little taste. Picture a Chipotle-style restaurant, but with Mediterranean and Greek flavors. When you walk up to the counter, you can choose to order a precrafted menu item consisting of bowls and pita wraps, or you can get creative and build your own bowl or wrap.
When choosing to customize a bowl or wrap, you start by picking your base — Greens and Grains, Grains or Salad — then adding up to three different spreads or dips, selecting one full or two half portions of protein, followed by choosing any variety of toppings, and finishing with a maximum of two dressings to top everything off. Cava also offers scrumptious sides such as pita chips and bread, for some crunchy diversity in textures, as well as a number of desserts, such as blondies, brownies and cookies, which make for a meal that satisfies both a sweet and savory tooth. If you want my personal recommendation, get a Greens and Grains Bowl with Romaine and Saffron Basmati Rice, three scoops of Traditional Hummus, a full portion of Grilled Chicken, Tomato + Onion, Tomato + Cucumber and Crumbled Teta toppings and a generous helping of Greek Vinaigrette dressing. Mouth-watering perfection.
Just thinking about my order often induces an intense craving for Cava, which I’m inevitably forced to ignore since no location exists in the Bay Area. SoCal 1, NorCal 0. This playing field, however, is soon to be leveled with the advent of NorCal’s first Cava scheduled to open in San Jose next year. It will be located at 3055 Olin Ave., Suite 1035 at the Santana Row shopping district, which is adjacent to the Westfield Valley Fair mall and is about a 1-hour car ride or 2.5-hour trek via BART. Cava has also confirmed plans to open two additional locations closer to San Francisco, though exact addresses and opening dates have not yet been announced.
While Cava’s expansion to the Bay Area is exciting, San Jose and San Francisco are still quite a ways away from Berkeley. Luckily, UC Berkeley has found a solution to bridge the distance by bringing a Cava equivalent to our very own campus. The recently opened Gateway Café, located inside the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society’s Gateway Building, is serving up build-your-own bowls and ready-to-order wraps that are impressively on par with Cava’s bright flavors, menu structure and portion sizes. The ordering experience is practically the same, with a counter showcasing sauces, proteins and toppings that almost exactly match Cava’s ingredient offerings. For reference, when I visited to get my Cava fix and verify Gateway Café’s status as a legit Cava dupe, I was pleasantly surprised with how comparable my Lemon-Herb Rice, Herbed Grilled Chicken, cucumber-tomato salad, Crumbled Feta and Lemon Tahini bowl was to my real Cava order. While the presentation wasn’t as vibrant and the bowl wasn’t as saucy and zesty as I normally like it, the savory, tangy and herbaceous Mediterranean flavors, which lay at the heart of Cava, were all there.
Overall, I can confidently say that I would go back to the Gateway Café whenever my undeniable Cava craving hits. And that’s really saying something, considering I’m off the meal plan and spent about $17 to get a taste of one of my favorite spots from home. Everyone’s tastebuds deserve to experience the bliss of Cava, and thanks to UC Berkeley Dining, that hope has now been made possible.