A new build-your-own Mediterranean concept opened its doors on Monday in West Fort Worth, serving bowls, wraps and pita sandwiches out of a storefront near Loop 820 — and a second location is already set to follow later this month. Gyrova, founded by local entrepreneur Baker Jaber, wants to bring a Chipotle-style approach to Greek and Middle Eastern flavors, with customers building their own meals from a buffet of proteins, dips and toppings.
The first Gyrova location sits at 301 Clifford Center Dr. #107, inside the Clifford Retail Center, a 15,050-square-foot strip built in 2008 that also houses Wingstop, GameStop and a Subway, according to Level Commercial Realty. As CultureMap Fort Worth reports, each new Gyrova location represents roughly a $150,000 investment, and the company already has a second spot lined up at 8561 N. Beach St., where it's taking over a space previously occupied by a Subway sandwich shop.
That second North Beach Street location is expected to open later in August, per Gyrova. It will land just blocks from Fairway Bend, the neighborhood where Jaber first made a name for himself in Fort Worth's fast-casual dining scene.
From Stop N Go Gyros to a Streamlined New Concept
Jaber previously helped expand Stop N Go Gyros, the local Greek chain that Hoodline covered when it opened its Fairway Bend doors in 2019 at 6401 N. Beach St., with another location near TCU at 3056 S. University Dr. Gyrova marks a shift for Jaber, from traditional Greek counter service toward a faster, assembly-line model built around customization.
Central to that model is saj — an unleavened Middle Eastern flatbread cooked to order. According to the seed story's reporting, Gyrova presses and cooks its saj dough on a traditional saj grill, with the dough itself taking just 15 seconds to prepare, a Gyrova spokesperson said. The chain also sources pita bread from a local bakery rather than making it in-house, and the spokesperson described the overall goal as building a Chipotle-style version of Mediterranean food.
Jaber told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he used his experience to create something modern while preserving Mediterranean flavors and hospitality. The menu includes chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, kafta, falafel, beef gyro meat and lamb gyro meat, alongside hummus, tzatziki, baba ghanoush, garlic whip and harissa for toppings. Sides run to dolmas, falafel, French fries and sodas, though the restaurant serves no alcohol.
Pricing and the Build-Your-Own Format
Bowls at Gyrova start at $12, pita sandwiches run $9, and wraps are priced at $10.50, per the same reporting. Diners move down a buffet line, choosing proteins, dips and toppings for bowls, wraps or pita pockets stuffed with hummus, falafel and other Mediterranean staples.
A Bigger Appetite for Mediterranean Fast-Casual
Gyrova's arrival lands amid a broader boom in fast-casual Mediterranean dining nationally. The segment is projected to be among the fastest-growing categories in the U.S. restaurant industry through 2034, with a 9.7% compound annual growth rate, according to Restaurant Business, which noted that fast-casual bowl and Mediterranean concepts grew sales 7.4% in 2024 even as traditional burger and sandwich chains grew less than 1%. Category leader CAVA topped $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time in fiscal 2025, posting $1.17 billion for the year and $368.4 million in second-quarter 2026 revenue with 9% same-store sales growth, according to CAVA Group, as the chain grew to 476 locations nationwide. Smaller emerging players are also expanding fast — The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill grew systemwide sales 44% to $73 million across 64 locations in 2024, landing at No. 21 on Technomic's Future 50 list, Restaurant Business reported.
Fort Worth's Growth Fuels Suburban Retail Demand
Locally, Gyrova is opening into a city that's growing fast enough to reshape its own restaurant map. Fort Worth added 19,512 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, reaching 1,028,117 people and the 10th-largest city ranking in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates — the second-highest raw population gain of any U.S. city that year. The growth pushed Fort Worth past the 1-million mark, making the Dallas-Fort Worth area the only U.S. metro with two cities over a million residents, per the City of Fort Worth, with the broader metroplex now topping 8.3 million people.
That growth has been especially pronounced in suburban corridors outside Loop 820, including the West Fort Worth and North Beach Street areas where Gyrova is planting its first two flags. Hoodline previously chronicled the city's dining boom tied to that population surge. But rising commercial rents remain a real hurdle for independent Fort Worth restaurateurs — Hoodline reported that Chadra Mezza & Grill had to abandon its Near Southside space earlier this year after rents there climbed to $14,000 to $15,000 a month, eventually reopening near JPS Hospital in a smaller space focused on catering. How Gyrova manages that kind of rent pressure as it scales beyond its initial $150,000-per-unit cost, and how it differentiates itself against national chains like CAVA, remains to be seen as the second location's opening date approaches.
