Brian and Anne Irwin of Pleasant Grove bought the Orem Gandolfo's in January 2004 and nearly two years later purchased the Gandolfo's in Lehi.

They've been successful. The Orem restaurant is third in sales among the more than 50 Gandolfo's nationwide. Located on State Street, the Orem store has felt the impact of the 800 North widening project.

"It's a great location," Irwin said of his Orem Gandolfo's. "Construction has hurt us 25-30 percent, but people are coming back. The loyal customers have just kept coming."

He said one of Gandolfo's strengths is its breakfast fare especially in Lehi where 40 percent of the store's sales is before 11 a.m. Breakfast begins at 7 a.m.

"This is my favorite place to eat breakfast," Randy Roberts, American Fork resident, said.

He works for Joco, a framing company, and stops by for breakfast at Gandolfo's Lehi on his way to work in Salt Lake County.

"Our breakfasts for one really set us apart," Irwin said. "As far as our lunch sandwiches go, our menu is pretty extensive and we slice our meat and cheese fresh."

There are 47 different sandwiches, 16 breakfast sandwiches, three deli salads, cheesecake and chocolate mousse cake. The star of the morning hours is the Radio City sandwich with two eggs, ham and cheese on a buttered Kaiser roll. Popular at lunchtime, the Burning Bridge is a turkey, bacon and provolone cheese sandwich on a hero bun with lettuce, mayonnaise and tomato.

They serve pastrami, beef, chicken, corned beef as well as turkey and ham. Other choices include their seven-grain wheat and sourdough breads along with ability to customize orders to fit the customer.

Another service Gandolfo's offers is delivery and catering.

"Something that most people don't know is that we do cater and we deliver orders of $20 or more," he said.

Before owning a Gandolfo's, Irwin worked in the software industry as an international software engineer for about 13 years, WordPerfect, Novell, Iomega and began working for a start up company in Draper. The last company he worked for went belly up a year later.

"It was the first time I had been laid off," he said. "Literally we started looking for anything we could do for our own business and a friend of mine said 'You know Gandolfo's just started franchising.'"

Initially they were looking for a Gandolfo's site in Salt Lake County but then the Orem place became available.

Craig Gandolph was the founder of Gandolfo's in 1989 under the initial restaurant name of Gandolfo's Deli. Don Pool, now president of the company, launched its deli concept outside of Utah and urged Gandolph to try a store in Atlanta, Ga.

"'If it will work there, it will work anywhere,' they said," Irwin said.

It was successful and they launched the new Gandolfo's franchising business.

Franchise Times, a news and information on franchising media firm, named Gandolfo's in the top five of the nation's top 55 fastest growing franchise concepts for 2006.

Gandolfo's experienced 460 percent growth over the previous year. Business plans call for 1000 stores to be signed by 2010.

The Irwins are a part of those plans, tentatively.

"It's going well," Irwin said. "We have looked at expanding. There are some possibilities."

Gandolfo's Lehi

Address: 114 S. 860 East, Lehi

Hours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sundays

Contact: 766-3803

Web site: www.gandolfosdeli.com

Gandolfo's Orem

Address: 775 N. State St.

Hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sundays

Contact: 734-1770

Web site: www.gandolfosdeli.com