CAVA’s training plan at 500 restaurants

CAVA marked its 500-restaurant milestone with a Minneapolis opening on September 23, bringing its first Minnesota location into a system spanning 30 states and Washington, D.C. The announcement also described the people required to prepare a new market for opening day.

For those launches, approximately 45–50 team members train with support from two new-restaurant-opening leads and 10 station trainers, CAVA said. The company describes months of preparation involving real estate, design, construction, operations, supply chain and training. The staffing range describes the group being prepared in new markets, rather than a permanent staffing count for Minneapolis.

Preparing managers and trainers#

CAVA’s 2025 Impact Update, published June 3, describes up to four days of onboarding for new team members and eight to ten weeks of foundational training for new managers. Onboarding covers the company’s mission, values and competencies, with additional development after managers’ foundational training. These are companywide descriptions, not the Minneapolis opening’s timetable.

The report names several ways that learning continues. CAVAYou provides role-specific digital lessons on demand, including food safety and functional skills. Competency Champion Training brings general managers together annually to learn how to train their own teams.

CAVA also uses Academy locations, restaurants designated for training. The report says it plans to add more of those restaurants and Academy general-manager roles as it grows.

For daily operations, the report describes the assistant general manager as a supporting leadership role intended to let general managers devote more attention to developing people, restaurant performance and talent.

Building the leadership pipeline#

In a separate June 9 hiring announcement, CAVA said it had already exceeded its 2026 goal of filling more than 150 assistant general manager positions. The role launched in December 2025, and 60% of assistant general managers had been promoted from within since that launch.

The company presented the additional management layer as preparation for expansion, with the aim of developing future leaders and supporting restaurant teams. That June announcement also set out plans to hire more than 2,500 team members during 2026 through its Flavor Your Future career-development platform.

CAVA paired that hiring effort with incentives for general managers. It said all general managers were eligible for long-term equity grants, alongside additional incentives tied to hiring and promotion performance.

The pace of expansion#

In its August 11 results, CAVA reported 17 net new restaurants during the fiscal second quarter ended July 12, taking its total to 476 at that date.

The company reaffirmed guidance for the full fiscal year for 75–77 net new restaurants and $22 million–$22.5 million in pre-opening costs.

CAVA recorded $6.7 million in pre-opening costs for the 12-week quarter ended July 12, 2026, compared with $5.1 million for the 12 weeks ended July 13, 2025. For the first 28 weeks of 2026, those expenses totaled $12.9 million, versus $9.6 million in the corresponding 2025 period.

CAVA reports pre-opening costs separately from restaurant operating expenses on its income statement. Its definition also excludes those expenses from restaurant-level profit.

By the September milestone, CAVA said its workforce exceeded 15,000. It expects that number to surpass 30,000 by 2032 as it works toward at least 1,000 restaurants.