Peanut butter and sweet pickles. Dilly’s Sandwiches co-owner Brein Clements grew up eating the unique combination that he now proudly serves at the month-old deli in the shops near Heartwell Park.
“It’s all about the ratio, you’ve got to have the right amount of crunchy peanut butter to pickles because if the ratio is off. It’ll just be weird,” Clements said.
Don’t worry. If you’re skeptical of the peanut butter-pickle combo, there are plenty of options at the Jewish-inspired deli Clements and his wife, Rory Ann, opened in early November.
All of the sandwiches come from family recipes, mostly from Brein’s grandfather – a Jewish immigrant who owned a pawn shop in Downtown Long Beach in the 1930s and ’40s.
The Reuben sandwich, for $19, features OlyKraut sauerkraut from Olympia, Washington, which features short shreds of cabbage just like Brein’s grandfather used to make.
Brein came up with the recipe for the $15 turkey sandwich — with pepperoncini, avocado and special spread — a few Super Bowls ago “and it stuck,” he said.
The Hot Beef sandwich, for $17, has also been a favorite – featuring roast beef and Tillamook cheddar with a creamed horseradish dipper on griddled sourdough.
Clements’ grandfather was a big reason he spent decades working as a chef in fine-dining restaurants.
Out of high school, Clements had a scholarship lined up for him to attend Cal State Long Beach. Instead, his grandfather convinced him to attend California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.
From there, he worked in fine dining establishments in Long Beach, Las Vegas, Napa and San Francisco. Clements met his wife while working at a resort in Newport Beach.
Eventually, he exited the culinary industry to join the family business of industrial refrigeration, which he still works in along with running the sandwich shop.
His family had long talked about opening a sandwich shop. When Brein’s mom died in 2022, he decided to make it a reality.
The name was the easy part.
“We wanted something playful. We wanted something we could have a mascot for. And that’s where Dilly’s came about,” Clements said.
Over a dozen pickle characters adorn one of the 60-foot walls inside the sandwich shop.
Long Beach artist and Grammy Award-winner Dave Van Patten designed and painted the pickle characters.
“When he told me he wanted a whole mish-mash of pickle characters, I started thinking about some iconic characters that would make the place really fun,” Van Patten said.
The placement was strategic, Van Patten said, with the break-dancing pickle next to the disapproving pickle sheriff.
Children visiting from the dance studio across the street and the nearby park have been big fans of the pickle characters along with the $2 Make it a Float option, which adds a scoop of vanilla ice cream to any soda or draft, Clements said.
The sandwich shop also offers a $12 ice cream sandwich featuring two Better Be cookies with unique flavors made by Clements’ cousin.
For the adults, Dilly’s has a masterful selection of rare draft beer on tap.
During his time in Northern California, Clements was an early adopter of craft beer and has maintained a lot of those relationships throughout the years.
The rotating tap list often doesn’t contain local beers, but Clements said he plans to hold events at the deli featuring nearby breweries.
Dilly’s also does not take its ingredient suppliers lightly.
The meat for each sandwich comes from the Russak Brothers, who created the pastrami for the legendary Langer’s Delicatessen established in 1947. The bread comes from BreadLA, which recently partnered with Diamond Bakery — a Jewish Bakery with roots dating back to 1946 in L.A.’s Fairfax neighborhood.
The pickles come from Los Angeles-based Kaylin + Kaylin Pickles.
At first, the pickle company was hesitant that they could keep up with the demand at Dilly’s.
“We’ve had a couple close calls, but they’re keeping up,” Clements said.
Dilly’s, 4144 N Viking Way, is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The store is closed on Mondays.