A beloved Orange County-based breakfast sandwich staple, EggBred, is gearing up to open its first franchised location in Long Beach early next year.
Fans especially love the take-out friendly eatery for its milk bread — a soft, airy bun that is the perfect vehicle for gooey eggs, cheese and beyond.
EggBred CEO Albert Shim opened his flagship location in La Habra in 2020. With nearly two decades of fine dining experience behind him, he wanted to move into the fast-casual world of cuisine to create breakfast sandwiches and burritos that are crafted with care and an attention to detail.
And that attention to detail manifests at every level. For example, the eatery makes a 70/30 blend of pork shoulder and back fat with garlic and Italian herbs in-house for their breakfast sausage. The potatoes? Beer-battered.
“We focus on quality,” Shim said. “We want to make it take-out friendly, but we do make it to order still, so it does take a little bit longer than your average McDonald’s.”
Long Beach’s location, which is owned by a couple who live in Long Beach but do not want to be identified, Shim said, will have the same menu as the La Habra location.
In addition to breakfast sandwiches, the menu will also offer lunch sandwiches like the “nashville hottie,” a hand-breaded buttermilk chicken breast with a smoked paprika spread, cider vinegar slaw, county fair dill pickles on a toasted milk bun. The “ribeye steak & egg,” which is just what it sounds like, has ribeye, an over-medium egg, lemon-dressed arugula, caramelized onions and a roasted pepper chimichurri.
A recent addition to the menu is seven new breakfast burritos. The chili con carne burritos comes with ribeye asada, a chorizo chili made from scratch in-house, beer-battered potatoes and more. Check out the full menu here.
EggBred also serves locally baked English muffins that are the size of burger buns, but they retain their chewy, fluffy texture for their customizable eggs Benedict item.
For those who are looking for something to eat with a fork, there are some non-sandwich options like avocado toast and a breakfast poutine, which comes with crispy potatoes, buttermilk popcorn chicken, country sausage gravy, and more.
When Shim opened the concept during the COVID-19 Pandemic, he wasn’t sure if people would come.
“I was so scared when we first opened,” Shim said. “But turns out everybody was actually pretty pent up and feeling cooped up in their house and I think they were really just excited to see a new concept pop up in their area.”
The brand rose to popularity on social media after releasing videos of overstuffed sandwiches and gooey egg yolks, which garnered thousands of views on Instagram. EggBred anticipates 10 more franchise locations to open within the next few years.
The shop, which will be located at the ground level of the Shoreline Gateway tower in Downtown at the cross section of Ocean Boulevard and Alamitos Avenue, will open by the end of January or early February, Shim said.
“We’re really excited to be serving that community,” Shim said. “We’re hoping that everybody enjoys our breakfast sandwiches and they can kind of have an alternative, chef-driven, flavorful, takeout-friendly type of breakfast.”
Follow EggBred’s Instagram for updates on the Long Beach location here.
Shoreline Gateway is located at 777 E. Ocean Boulevard.