Egg Tuck has soft-opened its first San Diego location in Little Italy, bringing the Los Angeles chain's pouch-cut brioche egg sandwiches to a street-level corner spot inside The Lindley apartment building at 1331 Columbia St., Ste. 102. The debut caps off months of anticipation after the brand was expected to arrive in the neighborhood back in May, and it marks the fast-growing chain's first foothold in San Diego proper.
According to FOX 5 San Diego and KUSI News, the menu centers on the Classic Egg Sandwich, built with the brand's signature scrambled eggs, alongside the Royal West Sandwich, which stacks a signature patty, an over-medium egg, cheddar cheese, grilled onions, pickles, chives, sriracha aioli and egg sauce. Every sandwich is made fresh to order using house-made brioche buns, scrambled eggs and a secret sauce, the outlet reports. Egg Tuck was voted L.A.'s Best Eggs by L.A. Weekly, a nod that has helped fuel the chain's expansion beyond its home base.
The Little Italy shop is run by Ryan Son, Egg Tuck's largest franchisee, who also operates locations in Los Angeles and Chicago, with Woojung Noh serving as the local store operator, according to a release carried by PR Newswire. Son previously brought the concept to Chicago's Michigan Avenue, a launch Hoodline covered in a Chicago debut in 2023. Following the soft opening, Egg Tuck announced plans for a four-hour grand opening event in San Diego featuring $4 signature sandwiches and burritos, per the same PR Newswire release.
From a Koreatown Pop-Up to a 16-Unit Chain
Restaurateur Alex Sohn launched Egg Tuck in 2018 as a pop-up inside a Koreatown restaurant in Los Angeles before selling the brand in 2023 to Anaheim-based parent company WaBa Grill, according to Culture OC. Hoodline first reported on that early growth when Egg Tuck expanded beyond Koreatown into Hollywood in 2019, and again when the concept first debuted in Koreatown back in 2018. The brand's defining move is what it calls a “tucked” preparation: slicing a pouch into the middle of house-made brioche buns to hold soft-scrambled eggs seasoned with a mushroom-based umami blend, then topping them with sriracha aioli and egg sauce, Culture OC notes.
With the San Diego debut, Egg Tuck's fast-casual footprint has expanded to 16 locations across Southern California, Illinois, and Texas, according to Foodservice News. Hoodline previewed the Little Italy location's arrival more than a year ago, when Egg Tuck first signed its street-level lease at The Lindley — a piece that can be revisited in our original Little Italy preview.
A Corner Spot Built for Foot Traffic
The restaurant sits next door to Solidcore Pilates near the intersection of Ash and Columbia streets, according to SanDiegoVille, positioning it to draw both residents of The Lindley and downtown office workers passing through the neighborhood. The shop operates daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., serving counter-service meals that include plant-based Just Egg burritos, egg-topped tater tots, and Groundwork Organic Coffee, the outlet reports.
Egg Tuck's arrival in Little Italy lands amid a broader 2026 morning-dining surge in San Diego, which also includes Orange County-founded concept EggBred opening in North Park this past spring, SanDiegoVille notes. Nationally, breakfast restaurant revenue grew from $13.8 billion in 2019 to $15.6 billion in 2025, according to IBISWorld data cited by Business Insider, with morning visits making up 21% of total restaurant foot traffic in 2024.
Egg Sandwiches Are Having a Moment on the West Coast
Dedicated egg sandwich concepts have been expanding rapidly across West Coast cities, a trend Hoodline has tracked in recent reporting on Los Angeles-born Eggslut opening in Portland this past July and Egg Pals opening a permanent shop in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood in August 2026. Whether Egg Tuck's kitchen can keep pace with the pouch-cut brioche during peak weekend crowds remains to be seen as the new San Diego crew settles into service, but for now, Little Italy has a new stop for soft-scrambled eggs stuffed into a bun.
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