Ike’s Love and Sandwiches, the popular sandwich chain founded in the Bay Area, is continuing to expand, with a second location in Long Beach set for a June 7 grand opening.

The shop, located in Long Beach’s food hall The Hangar at LBX, will have its soft opening on Tuesday, May 30. Employees, however, are undergoing live training Friday and Saturday, serving up sandwiches to customers—though wait times may be longer than customers are used to, area manager Jesse Arriola told the Post.

Grand opening festivities on June 7, which start at 10 a.m., will include a free T-shirt and sandwich for the first 50 guests in line, a chance to win free sandwiches for a year and a chance to meet the famed founder, Ike Shehadeh. All sandwiches will be at a discounted $7.97 for the entire day.

Two hands place tomatoes on a sandwich.
An employee of the new Ike’s shop inside the Hangar at LBX makes a sandwich for a customer during a training day Friday, May 26, 2023. Photo by Brandon Richardson.

The company’s headquarters relocated from the Bay Area to Long Beach at Clark Avenue and Spring Street in 2019, a year after the opening of the first Ike’s in Long Beach on Pacific Coast Highway near Bellflower Boulevard in 2018.

“This is basically our home store now,” Ike’s Sandwiches Vice President of Real Estate and Development Adam Rinella told the Post, noting the store’s closer proximity to headquarters than the PCH spot. “We’re pumped to be here.”

The sandwich shop gained popularity during the rise of Yelp, and its first location in San Francisco opened in 2007 and became a travel destination. Its menu has a wide plethora of options, including accommodations for gluten-free diners, vegans, vegetarians and those who eat halal meat.

Ike’s Love and Sandwiches’ new location can be found at 4150 McGowen St., #5.

A woman spreads sauce on bread as she makes a sandwich
Employees of the new Ike’s shop inside the Hangar at LBX make sandwiches for a customer during a training day Friday, May 26, 2023. Photo by Brandon Richardson.

Brandon Richardson is a reporter and photojournalist for the Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal.