Mendocino Farms is a Los Angeles-born fast-casual sandwich and salad chain founded in 2005, operating more than 80 locations across six states.
The chain was started by married co-founders Mario Del Pero and Ellen Chen-Del Pero, who had spent two years developing the concept before opening. The first shop occupied roughly 900 square feet beneath the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown 📝Los Angeles, CA — an unpromising basement space that 📝Starbucks had previously abandoned. Del Pero grew up in Marysville, California, where his father ran a century-old meat company, and the pair positioned the business as a "sandwich market" alternative to the casual-dining brands that dominated lunch at the time.
The operating signature is a menu that rotates every six to eight weeks, built around chef-driven sandwiches and salads with cross-cultural flavor combinations rather than a fixed deli lineup. That cadence keeps the concept closer to a seasonal restaurant than to a standardized quick-service chain, and it is the main axis on which the brand differentiates from national sandwich franchises.
Growth has been backed by outside capital since 2010, when L Catterton invested to fund expansion. 📝Whole Foods Market took a minor stake and opened the first in-store Mendocino Farms location in 2016, and in 2017 the private equity firm TPG acquired a majority stake from Catterton, installing former Yard House chief executive Harald Herrmann as CEO. The chain now operates across Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, and Washington, with additional locations in development.