by Garth Meyer
Mickey’s Deli, the Hermosa Beach institution since 1953, will open a second location on Saturday at Inglewood Avenue and Artesia Boulevard in North Redondo.
To mark the occasion, a new sandwich makes its debut, the Redondo Chicken Cutlet, free for the first 100 customers at the new take-out restaurant with patio seating.
“My dad and I have talked about doing a chicken cutlet forever and never did it; now seemed like a great opportunity,” said Mickey Mance, a grandson of the founder, and son of Paul Mance, the majority owner of the new venture.
Grandson Mickey joined the business in 2017, after degree in economics from San Diego State, five years running his own burger place in San Diego, and two years working for a marketing and advertising firm in Torrance.
“The expectation of another Mickey’s location has always been a dream,” Paul said. “But it only came true because of my son, Mickey, and (third business partner) Justin (Essman). We pride ourselves on having family members involved.”
The third-generation Mickey, in his first five years at the company, worked to mainly grow the catering operation, which reached one-third of revenue pre-pandemic, when the lingering work-from-home culture scrapped plans to open a commercial kitchen. Mickey, Paul and Essman instead opened two restaurants in Riviera Village – VIDA Modern Mexican and Salt & Pearl – in 2021 and 2022.
“Kind of a windy path to get where we are now,” Mickey said.
Essman previously worked for the Sharkeez Restaurant Group for 12 years.
The partners began to look into opening a second Mickey’s location a year and a half ago. Then they learned the Mobil on the corner of Inglewood and Artesia was closing its convenience store.
“You look at that area, the amount of traffic going by, and it has 25 parking spaces,” Mickey said. “People love Mickey’s (Hermosa) but it’s not a convenient place to get to. What if we make it convenient to get to Mickey’s? That was kind of the thought process.”
The new restaurant is 1,100 square feet; “pretty much all kitchen,” Mickey said, with the 250 square-foot outdoor seating area.
When Mickey returned to the South Bay from San Diego in 2015, he and his dad also worked to make Mickey’s more efficient, and to refresh the space. The operation still took orders with pen and paper until 2017.
Eventually the plan was made for Mickey to join the business full-time. The agreement was that he would start in one year, to work in the upstairs office at the Hermosa store.
“Two months later I was at Mickey’s,” said the grandson. “I liked what I was doing (in Torrance), there was no rush, but I started to think how much we could get done in the next 12 months if I start now.”
While this is the first formal expansion of Mickey’s, its founder, Michael Angelo – Paul’s father – did own the Catalina Liquor store in Redondo Beach in the 1990s. The window that is now Standing Room was a Mickey’s. Paul helped build its kitchen.
What is happening today is a full new restaurant. The Redondo location will open with a streamlined menu.
“We’ve got a big menu at Mickey’s,” Mickey said. “This will be smaller, but long-term the menu will be mirrored at both restaurants.”
“We go against every psychological menu strategy I’ve ever read about,” Mickey added. “Some sandwiches we may not sell many of, but (customer) John, who gets it once a week is not going to be happy it’s no longer there.”
Mickey’s has been training new employees at Hermosa Beach.
“We have guys who have worked for us for 40, 50 years and many, 20 years,” Mickey said.
The Redondo Beach grand opening goes from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Saturday, or however long the food lasts.
Construction began last October. Mickey’s Redondo will operate seven days a week from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. It will be more of a food-only location, compared to Hermosa Beach, which also sells liquor and convenience store items.
“Every day I’m at Redondo someone is popping in to say how excited they are… My dad always says we’re only here because of the community. Now we have a new community to work for,” Mickey said.
“A big driver for me is carrying on what my family built. How can I leave my own mark on that as well. Whatever I can do to improve it, make it more efficient and continue to grow. It’s fun to get to do it with my dad.”
As for Paul, age 68, he has only ever worked for Mickey’s Deli. He started in middle school, washing sand off of bottles for deposit.
“My dad built a beautiful situation in a beautiful city,” Paul said. “We pride ourselves on our customers who we see as our friends.”
As for the Redondo Chicken Cutlet, it consists of fried chicken slices, imported Italian prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, toasted bread, thinly-sliced tomatoes, arugula, homemade pesto aioli and a balsamic glaze.
“We take the same approach, give the same attention to detail as preparing oysters or sea bass or a filet mignon at Salt & Pearl,” Mickey said. “We take tremendous pride in that.”
“Same sauce, different city,” Paul said. “Same time, same bat channel. Carry it on.” ER
