___________________________________________________________________________________ Ike’ s Love & Sandwiches
After that, I got into real estate, but ended up working three jobs across seven days a week. I guess I was a workaholic!”
Through that difficult period of hustle and self-reflection, Ike’ s resilience pushed him to rebuild his confidence and reignite his inner flame. Starting again from the bottom and working hard through several jobs, he realized his passion for business and, by the time 2007 rolled around, Ike made the decision to bet on himself again.
“ In 2007, I took my income and decided to get back into business for myself,” Ike continues.“ I thought about the things I loved: cooking, hanging out with friends, and making memories. Months later, I opened my first café, called Ike’ s Place. At first, we were only busy for breakfast. We had breakfast sandwiches and a full espresso bar and then sandwiches and salads for lunch. In March 2008, I found out that we were the number one restaurant on Yelp. Tourists would come to us from other countries – they’ d see me and say“ Oh, you’ re the sandwich guy!”. Following that, we got rid of the coffee and the salads and became a sandwich restaurant. We now sell up to 1200 sandwiches a day.”
Organic growth
Following his arduous journey of struggle, Ike’ s drive and determination had finally paid off: Ike’ s Place, now Ike’ s Love & Sandwiches, was shooting for the stars. Ike’ s newfound fame drew customers, tourists, and a star-studded clientele from across the globe, who quickly fell in love with the business’ sandwiches and vibrant personality.
“ Because we were popular, we had landlords reaching out to us with properties available, one of which was Stanford University. The Forbes family, alongside Jensen Wong of NVIDIA, was building a
Congratulations to Ike’ s on reaching 100 + locations nationwide! Raymond’ s is proud to support Ike’ s growth with bread that matches their passion for quality and community.
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