For the Love of Stone

At Cava Surfaces, timeless materials meet contemporary technology to shape exceptional residential and commercial spaces.

By Charlotte Bushnell-Boates

At Toronto’s Cava Surfaces, a love of stone is the company’s guiding light, extending from beautiful Italian Renaissance sculptures to the interior spaces of today and everything in between. From premium marble to engineered quartz to deep-hued granite, stone has the ability to infuse a space with colour, texture, and a sense of luxury in a way that few materials can.

Cava Surfaces has been meticulously sourcing fine, premium stones from around the world for more than 20 years and shares its extensive expertise and industry relationships with clients across North America. Its stones have found beautiful homes in residences, hotel resorts, retail shops, and more. 

The brand’s collection includes hand-selected high-quality slabs sourced directly from Italy, Greece, Spain and Brazil, offering a vast selection of both natural and engineered stone. “There are so many different technologies and architectural finishes, like fluted, reeded, rocky textures and more, that have made marble even more beautiful, believe it not,” says Tariq Darwish, sales and marketing manager at Cava Surfaces. 

The team’s story began in 2006, when CEO Joe Barranca founded City Marble, Granite, and Stone. Over a decade later, the company evolved into Cava Surfaces, establishing itself further as a premium brand of specialists in exotic stone slabs for luxury design. Since then, Cava Surfaces’ reputation for exceptional slabs and in-depth industry expertise has grown. To experience it in person, customers can explore Cava Surfaces’ extensive collection at the brand’s expansive 25,000-square-foot showroom in Toronto’s design district. 

Here, they will learn that excellent customer service is also paramount. The company’s stone specialists work hand-in-hand with clients to help choose and design the perfect stone for every project, providing support from conception to final installation. Working with the best local designers, fabricators and installers, Cava is also well equipped for custom projects, be it a marble tub in an ensuite bathroom or a one-of-a-kind statement-making backsplash.

“We have a very well-rounded team of stone advisors that aren’t salesmen, but literally educators of stone,” Darwish says. To ensure they continue to lead the industry, Cava Surfaces’ team regularly visits stone quarries in Italy and Brazil and attends the world’s most premium stone shows to stay up to date on the latest finishes, trends and technologies. “Right now, we’re seeing lots of warmer browns and beiges, as well as lots of textures, such as matte finishes,” Darwish says. “Natural stone has reclaimed its throne. Manmade stone has made impressive advancements, with nano-ink technology producing marble-like quartz and porcelain slabs, but the richness, depth and authenticity of natural stone remain unmatched.” 

“There are so many different technologies and architectural finishes, like fluted, reeded, rocky textures and more, that have made marble even more beautiful, believe it or not.” 

Beyond merely observing, Cava Surfaces is also setting those trends and regularly participates at internationally renowned industry shows. Take BDNY, a respected hospitality design trade fair in New York City, for instance. Cava Surfaces attended the fair for the first time in 2025 and took home the title of Best in Show for its booth, further establishing the company’s international acclaim. “As a Canadian brand, it was meaningful to be recognized at such an industry-leading show in New York,” says Darwish.

Closer to home at the Living Luxe Design Show in April 2025, Cava Surfaces won the coveted People’s Choice Award—voted on by the show’s visitors throughout the weekend—thanks to its immersive and innovative booth. 

But whether a stone slab is for a single-family home or for a trade show visited by thousands, Cava Surfaces brings the same level of care, quality and attention to detail to ensure that each project is exceptional.