A sandwich shop known for its Dutch Crunch rolls and cult following is moving into Westwood Village, taking over a storefront that British chain Pret A Manger abandoned just months ago. Ghost Sando Shop plans to open its seventh California location at 901 Westwood Blvd by the end of September, according to founder Benjamin Sales.
The new shop, first reported by WhatNow, will occupy a 1,100-square-foot space with 20 indoor dining seats and another 10 to 12 seats on a patio. Sales owns Ghost Sando Shop, which he launched with his wife, and previously operated Ghost Pizza Kitchen, the pizza concept that gave rise to the sandwich brand. Someone with the outlet Toddrickallen spotted Ghost Sando Shop signage already up at the Westwood address this week, ahead of the official announcement.
The Westwood location will mark Ghost Sando Shop's sixth California expansion beyond its existing shops in El Segundo, Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, La Mirada, Burbank and Melrose. The menu that built the brand's following includes items like the Melrose sandwich and the Terminator, alongside a rotating lineup of hot and cold sandwiches and breakfast options. Per the same account, the company will roll out new English muffin sandwiches across all of its locations in the coming weeks.
From a Pandemic-Era Fluke to a Multi-State Ambition
Sales has described the brand's origin in blunt terms, saying Ghost Sando Shop opened by fluke and then became viral. He has said customer demand, not a corporate expansion plan, drove the chain's growth, and that he sees a void in the flavor profiles typically offered by sandwich shops. The founder has also said his long-term goal is national growth, with individuals eventually owning their own Ghost Sando Shop franchise-style outposts.
That ambition is already moving past state lines. Ghost Sando Shop plans to open its first out-of-state location in Idaho by the end of 2026, a milestone that would follow years of steady buildout across Southern California food halls and standalone storefronts.
A Founder's Fast-Casual Roots
Before building his own restaurant group, Sales served as director of operations for Chipotle, overseeing the Los Angeles market and supporting the chain's now-shuttered sister concept ShopHouse, according to New York Watermaker. That corporate fast-casual background appears to have shaped how he scaled Ghost Pizza Kitchen, which he registered in Los Angeles County in May 2019 at its original 7751 Melrose Avenue location, according to Mountain Views News, before the business branched into the sandwich concept that now carries the Ghost name across Southern California.
To keep quality consistent as the sandwich shop multiplied, Sales installed custom water replication hardware designed to mimic Bronx, New York tap water for his dough, and deployed automated call-routing software across locations, per New York Watermaker. The brand's viral reputation took hold around its Dutch Crunch rolls, a tender white bread finished with a crispy rice flour crust, paired with house-made slaws, according to Grand Central Market coverage of the concept. That reputation earned Ghost Sando Shop a stall inside downtown Los Angeles' historic Grand Central Market in June 2023, and helped land it on Time Out Los Angeles' rundown of Eater LA's list of 19 epic Los Angeles sandwiches that same year.
Westwood Village Bets on a New Wave of Tenants
The Westwood expansion lands in a commercial corridor working to reinvent itself. Pret A Manger opened its Los Angeles debut at 901 Westwood Blvd in early 2024 before closing both that shop and its Century City location by April, according to Toddrickallen. UCLA and the Westwood Village Improvement Association have also pushed to rebuild foot traffic in the district, launching the monthly First Thursdays street event series in March 2022, per UCLA Newsroom.
Investors have taken notice of the shifting corridor too. The historic 1929 Holmby Hall complex, just down the block at 921 Westwood Blvd, sold for $32.675 million in October 2025 for planned upgrades, according to Kidder Mathews. Broader re-tenanting across Westwood Village has accelerated through 2025 and 2026 as landlords position storefronts ahead of the Metro D Line subway extension and UCLA's role hosting the 2028 Olympic Village, according to Leonard Rabinowitz. Ghost Sando Shop's arrival follows another fast-casual newcomer to the Village, and comes as UCLA has separately moved to acquire more commercial properties nearby.
