Little Lucca, big sandwiches in South San Francisco and Burlingame

It begs the question. How could such a small place, using only word of mouth continue to create a growing and loyal fan base after almost 40 years?

Owners Mike and Diane McClymond took over Little Lucca from the original owner, Harold Teani, who retired in January of 2001. Their success, they said, comes down to a few things.

First, freshness. The McClymonds upgraded the freshness of their sandwiches immediately after taking over Little Lucca in 2001. The bread and everything that goes between it is guaranteed to be fresh daily. Of course, that includes Little Lucca’s best-selling bread option, the Dutch Crunch, a northern California rival to the popular sourdough and a customer favorite.

“We don’t sell any day-old bread, everything gets tossed out at night. If we have a slow day, we can toss away 15 dozen to 20 [dozen] breads,” said Mike McClymond.

From the long lines of eager customers, it is safe to say that this doesn’t happen often.

The second secret of Little Lucca’s continued success is its location. While Little Lucca has become a local hot spot since it opened in 1980, its two locations are both just down the road from the San Francisco International Airport. This has made it a popular destination for many of the airport’s visitors and workers. One such worker in line at the Burlingame location, still wearing his reflective vest, said he’s been coming to Little Lucca for a couple of months while they did some work at SFO.

“Get the tri-tip,” he said reassuringly.

The secret is the sauce

The McClymonds also have a deep respect for the shop’s traditions. That includes the star ingredient of their sandwiches, Little Lucca’s “Original Garlic Sauce” whose secret recipe was handed down to them from Teani after he retired. Little Lucca was the first place to use garlic sauce on sandwiches, inspiring others in the area and beyond to add it to their own sandwiches. But Little Lucca was the first. “There was a sandwich shop back in the day in San Bruno called ‘The Viking Sandwich Shop,’ said Teani, and they had this green sauce. ... I didn’t know it was pesto, but I went to my mom and she told me she knew what it was.”

Teani’s mother made her version of the sauce but it wasn’t the same. Harold’s mother, hailing from the Lucca province in Italy, told him that it was how it was made there. It didn’t match Viking’s sauce, but Harold saw something there. After tweaking the recipe several times and using a good friend as a taste tester, they finally settled on a recipe. Harold decided to add it to the sandwich of a customer one day.

“I was shaking in my boots” he said. “But the following day a couple more people came in and then more and more.”

The rest was history. Today, you can order that very same sauce with your sandwich and Mike and Diane are two are proud to be carrying on the tradition.

Over at Little Lucca’s South San Francisco location, a line is coming out of their small shop. Many are lifelong customers such as Jose Gomez who lives just down the road.

“I’ve come here many times. Lived here my whole life,” he says. “As soon as I could get out of the house by myself, I would come here.”

He recommends the smoked turkey on Dutch crunch.

The new beginning

With so many dedicated customers such as Jose eager to get a sandwich from Little Lucca, you would think that taking over the place would be a no-brainer, but the decision to acquire Little Lucca was not an easy one for Mike and Diane. At that time, both had secure jobs: Mike with an 18-year career with Pacific Gas and Electric and Diane with a career in insurance. But Mike wanted something more. He loved cooking and it had always been a dream for him to run a deli. One day, when he saw an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle saying that Little Lucca was looking for buyers, they decided to throw their hat in the ring.

They began doing their homework. The two were already familiar with the place, having visited every so often when they were high school and college students. However, to gain an even deeper understanding of how things worked, Diane arranged with Teani to work at Little Lucca, unbeknownst to the rest of the staff, for one week which helped them gain even more insight.

“We got to see firsthand what was going on with the operations and employees so when we came in, we already knew some things that we were going to keep and some things we were going to change,” said Diane.

Finally, after learning the ins and outs of Little Lucca, they decided to purchase it in January of  2001. At first they kept their old jobs, meaning they were working two jobs, seven days a week, before finally deciding to leave them to focus on Little Lucca.

Major overhaul

Aside from upgrading the freshness, Mike and Diane did a major overhaul of their menu offerings. They kept some of the original sandwiches, but Mike, a chef at heart, greatly expanded the menu, at first adding what they personally liked before creating more fancier sandwiches which helped to bring in even more customers. Diane also chipped in, creating the “Lucca Ultimate.”  

As for the future, the two have some equipment upgrades and renovations planned. Frankly, the decor is pretty bland, but customers don’t seem to mind.

“They come here for the sandwiches,” Diane jokes.

Many customers have asked them if they have any plans to expand beyond the two shops they already have. They did attempt to open a place in San Francisco years ago, but it didn’t work out. Right now, it seems their current two shops are enough.  

“It’s a pipe dream. I think we’re comfortable for where we are now,” said Diane.

“Unless someone comes in and makes us an offer. Like I want to open up 10 stores,”  jokes Mike.

Little Lucca’s South San Francisco Location is open weekdays 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Its Burlingame shop is open weekdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and  Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

More information can be found at littlelucca.com.