Dilly’s Sandwiches—Lakewood Village’s gem of a sandwich shop—is celebrating two years of serving the Long Beach community. Brein and Rory Ann Clements’s little shop on Viking Way has become one of Long Beach’s most compelling arguments for the neighborhood hangout: Bring the kids. Order something pickled. Eat a sandwich. Discover a brewery you might otherwise never encounter without buying a plane ticket.
And this week, it’s time to celebrate that.
Dilly’s second anniversary officially kicked off today, Nov. 3, with its birthday food menu, launching six days of festivities through Sunday, Nov. 8. An anniversary ale made with Long Beach’s own ISM Brewing. Special bottles. An additional tap. And—perhaps most exciting—a weekend tasting pass that deserves the attention of anyone who takes beer seriously. Or simply wants to explore what makes this particular sandwich shop so special.
The return of fan favorites…
When I first wrote about Dilly’s shortly after its November 2024 opening, the appeal was already there: A family-run shop. Owners who understood that a sandwich could be straightforward and still deserve thoughtful ingredients. Good pickles. And Proper-with-a-capital-P beer. This two-year anniversary menu celebrates those roots: The six-sandwich anniversary lineup leans into the salty, sweet, creamy, and pickled combinations that make Dilly’s worth returning to.
The LBC, which was offered for Long Beach Food Scene Week earlier this summer, gets a birthday-menu treatment with turkey, bacon, arugula, tomato, mayo, and apple butter on potato bread. That apple butter is the sweet counterpoint here; this is a different build from the summer version’s chipotle strawberry jam.
Pennywise returns after it premiered as a partnership between the famed punk band and shop, thanks to a collaboration between Vans Warped Tour and me for Long Beach Food Scene Week. It pairs smoked ham and bacon with pepper jack and goat horn peppers on grilled ciabatta.
The BLTP adds pimento cheese and pickled onion to the familiar bacon-lettuce-tomato equation. And The Rors piles cheddar, Swiss, pepper jack, bacon, tomato, and pickles onto grilled sourdough.
…plus “2.0” versions of classic grace the Dilly’s Sandwiches two-year anniversary menu.
Vegetables get two dedicated sandwiches.
The Dilly 2.0—an alternative to their classic veggie sandwich—combines cucumber, cream cheese, peppers, tomato, roasted garlic, and sprouts on sweet brown bread. Gone is the avocado; here is the lovely weight of roasted garlic.
The Carrot—one of my favorite sandwiches Dilly’s ever created—also gets its 2.0 treatment. It brings roasted carrot, cream cheese, mango chutney, and pickled cauliflower to grilled ciabatta. I love that Brein is using the humble carrot as a thread for a potential series of carrot sandwiches, with this one reading like an invitation to take in sweet, tangy, and creamy in the same bite.
The full sandwich lineup for the week-long celebration of Dilly’s Sandwiches.
LBC ($16): Turkey | Bacon | Arugula | Tomato | Mayo | Apple butter | Potato bread
BLTP ($16): Bacon | Lettuce | Tomato | Pimento cheese | Pickled onion | Soft white bread
The Dilly 2.0 ($15): Cucumber | Cream cheese | Peppers | Tomato | Roasted garlic | Sprouts | Sweet brown bread
The Rors ($15): Cheddar | Swiss | Pepper jack | Bacon | Tomato | Pickles | Sourdough
Pennywise ($16): Smoked ham | Bacon | Pepper jack | Goat horn peppers | Ciabatta
The Carrot 2.0 ($15): Roasted carrot | Cream cheese | Mango chutney | Pickled cauliflower | Ciabatta
The $75 VIP pass: 15 beer tastings, and a very good reason to explore
The anniversary’s VIP option—officially called the Anniversary All-Access Pass—gets you 15 beer tastings for $75. That is $5 per tasting. Given the caliber of beer Dilly’s has built its reputation on, that is an incredible value.
Only 50 passes are available, with in-person sales beginning today. The all-access anniversary weekend takes place Nov. 7 and 8, with the flyer advertising 14 drafts across the two days, plus surprises.
And the reason to care about Dilly’s beer offering for their birthday extends well beyond the arithmetic value of it all…
Brein has built relationships that have brought breweries such as Oregon’s De Garde, Washington’s Fair Isle, and Missouri’s Side Project into this small Long Beach shop. Dilly’s even managed to secure kegs of the elusive Sante Adairius Rustic Ales for a dinner at the shop. Most of these are examples from Dilly’s broader, day-to-day beer program, but they explain why a tasting pass here carries weight.
That kind of access speaks to the relationships behind the taps. A neighborhood sandwich shop presenting a dinner around one of American craft beer’s most respected farmhouse and mixed-fermentation producers? That is a serious beer program. The birthday pass offers a reason to spend time with that program, explore unfamiliar pours, and see where Brein’s connections take the celebration.
What will be served with the All Access pass?
Sante Adairius. De Garde. Anchorage. The Veil. Just a smidge of the
Dilly’s weekend VIP experience brings together 15 beers for its $75 tasting pass—an incredible $5 per tasting—with a lineup that makes Brein’s relationships within the craft beer world abundantly clear.
Six pours particularly deserve your attention…
- Sante Adairius’s Bended Note puts the shop’s connection with the elusive brewery back in the spotlight. A cherry saison aged in Frederiksdal cherry wine barrels, it blends fruit, fermentation, and a compelling barrel pedigree.
- Riip’s 12th Anniversary double dry-hopped West Coast IPA deserves its own spotlight. The Huntington Beach brewery has earned national recognition for its brewing, including a Brewery and Brewer of the Year award at the 2024 Great American Beer Festival. With such limited keg distribution from a small brewery, getting its anniversary IPA onto Dilly’s taps is another reason to appreciate this lineup: Brein has secured a celebratory release from a brewery with formidable hop credentials.
- De Garde’s The Frais L’Orange is another standout: a spontaneously fermented beer with three years of barrel aging, orange, and fresh Strata hops. Time, fruit, and fresh hops in one pour—and precisely the kind of offering that makes this tasting pass worth exploring beyond your usual beer preferences.
- Anchorage Jaguar God is for the barleywine/stout lovers, an offering described on Dilly’s lineup as bourbon barrel-aged for eight years.
- Highland Park’s 2024 Revivor, a bourbon barrel-aged doppelbock, deserves attention alongside those stouts and wild ales. A barrel-aged lager adds another dimension to a lineup already reaching well beyond the expected IPAs.
- And lastly, but certainly not least, ISM’s Hot Turkey collab beer with Dilly’s: an exceptionally bright, balanced, proper quad West Coast IPA, I suggest this beer with any of Dilly’s hot sandwiches—especially a hot beef with pepperoncinis, an off-menu order that is worth every damn calorie.
The full beer lineup for Dilly’s Sandwiches’ weekend, All Access Pass offering…
Simply put: crazy awesome.
- Sakiškės Lithuanian Pils: Lithuanian pilsner
- Gold Dot Unfiltered Export Lager: Unfiltered export lager
- Wayfinder Agent of Chaos: Dunkel
- Ghost Town Bottom Feeder: West Coast pilsner
- Fast Fashion Self Expression: Hazy IPA
- Green Cheek The Danger Is What Makes It Good: Double dry-hopped West Coast IPA
- ISM Hot Turkey: Quadruple dry-hopped West Coast IPA
- Riip 12th Anniversary: Double dry-hopped West Coast IPA
- Human People Peace Frog: Double dry-hopped West Coast IPA
- Trillium Daily Serving: Berliner weisse with fresh apple cider
- Sante Adairius Bended Note: Cherry saison aged in Frederiksdal cherry wine barrels
- De Garde The Frais L’Orange: Spontaneously fermented beer aged in barrels for three years, with orange and fresh Strata hops
- Highland Park 2024 Revivor: Bourbon barrel-aged doppelbock
- The Veil 2024 Sleeping Forever Extreme Vanilla: Bourbon barrel-aged stout with vanilla
- Anchorage Jaguar God: Barleywine/stout offering described on Dilly’s lineup as bourbon barrel-aged for eight years
What is happening throughout Dilly’s anniversary week?
Tuesday, Nov. 3: The celebration begins, including today’s birthday food menu launch. Dilly’s is releasing its anniversary ale brewed with ISM, available on draft and in cans. In-person sales also begin for the 50 Anniversary All-Access Passes.
Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 4–6: The anniversary menu continues, joined by a special bottle available for purchase and the introduction of Tap No. 15, featuring another special beer for purchase. The flyer leaves those beer identities as surprises.
Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7–8: The main anniversary weekend brings the advertised 15-draft lineup, all-access festivities, and more surprises, with the birthday food menu continuing through Sunday.
Dilly’s Sandwiches is located at 4144 N. Viking Way in Long Beach. The second anniversary celebration runs Nov. 3–8. Anniversary All-Access Passes are $75 for 15 tastings, with only 50 available and sold in person.
