Long Beach Food Scene Week kicks off July 31 and runs through Aug. 9, celebrating our city’s ever-evolving food culture. To uplift our chefs, restaurateurs, managers, bartenders, line cooks, servers, bussers, and everyone else who makes Long Beach hospitality what it is, I will be highlighting specific participants—like this focus on Dilly’s.
Tucked along Viking Way in Lakewood Village, Dilly’s Sandwiches feels like the sandwich shop Long Beach has always needed. Dilly’s doesn’t focus on one culture or another. (We hear and see you, Olives, Angelo’s, Beach City, Santa Fe Importers… All of whom focus solely on Italian or barbecue or…).
Dilly’s direct approach to sandwiches is for sandwich lovers. And, nearly two years into operation, there’s no better extension of this dedication to the Sandwich Lover than their Long Beach Food Scene Week offering.
A triple-decker club that blends Dilly’s love of the salty and sweet is coming for Long Beach Food Scene Week.
Last year, Dilly’s dove into the world of hot dogs for LBFSW, effectively kicking off what would eventually become their (underrated) Hot Dog of the Month menu. (And, yes, hot dogs are sandwiches.)
This year, Chef Brein Clements is returning to the Dilly’s roots and a signature of his: blending the salty with the sweet with a massive triple-decker sandwich that feels as about Dilly’s as it can get.
Three slices of toasted potato bread transform this into an unapologetically indulgent club-style sandwich, layering smoked turkey with six thick, crisp strips of bacon for the perfect balance of smoky, savory richness and salty crunch. Fresh arugula lends a peppery bite. And—the star—copious amounts of mayo blended with Chef Brein’s house-made chipotle strawberry jam.
Blending ripe strawberry sweetness with the slow-building heat of chipotle peppers, the jam cuts through the richness and saltiness of the proteins with a sweet-spicy brightness that makes every bite feel balanced rather than heavy. It’s a comforting sandwich elevated by thoughtful house-made touches and bold flavor contrasts.
Updates across the years have stabilized Dilly’s as one of the best.
Yes, Dilly’s is known for the staples from its inaugural menu: classic Reubens. A killer hot beef. One of the best veggie sandwiches in the city. And, yes, the rightfully famous peanut butter-and-pickle sandwich. But there’s been updates along the way that have also contributed to its greatness.
A stellar ham and cheese sandwich, stacked high with honey ham and potato chips before their house-made jalapeño pimento cheese is slathered onto bread slices, all of it happily squished together. It’s a salt bomb that is wonderfully balanced with the just-right, slightest hint of sweetness: the honey ham and candied, pickled jalapeño made in-house for the pimento cheese.
Or you can indugle in Thanksgiving early with their hot turkey, where layers of stuffing, roasted turkey, cranberry, and magic come together. Or a perfect grilled cheese with tomato soup (which is also perfect for this weather). And a classic cold roast beef offering that will appease those who want that crisp, cold deli sandwich with tomato, iceberg, and pepper jack…
But perhaps no sandwich is more unique or wonderfully balanced or flex’s Brein’s culinary skill than The Carrot. Whole carrots, dusted with salt and oil, are blasted until al dente in a roaster, paired with chunks of bright, umami-soaked kimchi and plenty of cheese in a talera roll. It is an unexpected ball of tart, plenty of salt, creaminess, and the tiniest bit of sweet. It is a wonder of a sandwich.
Hold up—what is Dilly’s Sandwiches and how did it come to be?
Dilly’s is the creation of husband-and-wife team Brein and Rory Ann Clements, who first met while working at the Balboa Bay Club—she in the pastry department, he as chef de cuisine.
“This sandwich thing was a joke,” Rory Ann told me when they first opened. “We used to say, ‘You’ll open a taco stand and I’ll open a sandwich shop.’ He didn’t get the taco stand—but I got my sandwiches.”
Their small corner shop, now a fast-growing favorite for the Lakewood Village lunch crowd and after-school families, is built on the same philosophy that shaped their relationship: love, collaboration, and zero pretense. Sandwiches come stacked between rye or sourdough, overstuffed with pastrami, turkey, or smoked salami, with sides of macaroni or potato salad—and always, pickles. Lots of them. The green tomatoes, the briny half-sours, the bread-and-butter rounds—all come from New York’s Kaylin + Kaylin Pickles, chosen after the couple’s own recipes couldn’t measure up.
Their mural-covered space features “Dilly,” the shop’s pickle mascot, painted by Grammy-winning Long Beach artist Dave Van Patten, and meats from Russak Brothers round out the menu. For the Clements, the model is simple: partner with the best small producers rather than try to make everything in-house. “We wanted to work with companies that align with our values,” Brein said. “Yeah, it makes our costs go up—but we’re proud of what we serve here.”
A beer list unlike anything in the city…
If Rory Ann owns the sandwich side, Chef Brein claims the taps. His compact but wildly ambitious beer program isn’t just the most interesting in Long Beach but the county—something a customer was rightfully able to correct me on when I said they were just the “best in the city.” Ryan, the customer, was right: Brein has built a magical relationship with breweries across the country.
The result? Breweries spanning the likes of Da Garde and Gold Dot out of Oregon. Fair Isle and Human People out of Seattle. North Park out of San Diego. Dutchess and Drowned Lands out of New York. JK’s Farmhouse out of Michigan. Heirloom Rustic out of Oklahoma. Side Project out of Missouri… And these are just a handful of the breweries represented across Dilly’s tenure.
It’s supported by a custom-built system that lets Chef Brein adjust nitrogen and CO₂ levels to fine-tune texture and body. It’s an innovation inspired by Beachwood’s own beer engineers. The result? A set of pours that are as thoughtful as the sandwiches they accompany. In a city full of craft beer menus that look the same, Dilly’s delivers something different. Beers you’ve never heard of. Sandwiches that feel like home. And a reminder that sometimes, simplicity and sincerity make for the best meal in town.
Dilly’s Sandwiches is located at 4144 Viking Way.
