3 best friends open New Jersey-inspired Italian deli in Melrose Hill

MELROSE HILL (KABC) -- When three best friends from New Jersey started missing their favorite Italian deli's, they decided to open their own.

"We could not have imagined the amount of New Jersey transplants living in L.A. that are calling us up like, 'This is my childhood, you brought my home here,'" said co-founder Jack Biebel.

Jack Biebel, Noah Holton-Raphael, and Max Bahramipour first opened Ggiata Delicatessen in June 2020.

They started in Koreatown, right in the middle of the pandemic.

"We just grinded it out for like six months and got the opportunity to move into this spot and build it out from scratch," said Holton-Raphael.

Their Italian-style deli sandwiches were immediately a hit. They averaged 150 sandwiches per day, making enough money to move into a brick-and-mortar location in Melrose Hill.

"We want to become fixtures in the neighborhood. We want it to be kind of like home where people come in and we know their name and it like feels like a real local spot," said Bahramipour.

Their goal now is trying to give back.

"Our first kind of goal as we were moving into this area was like where's the high school what's the neighboring community, how can we get ourselves involved," said Biebel.

It's not uncommon for them to completely sell out before the end of the day. But if you can place an order early, the Spicy P is a fan favorite.

"We sell literally at this point about 100 a day. It's kind of insane," said Biebel.