BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

Burbank residents are lining up to get a taste of Jersey Mike’s Subs, a shop that is being touted as having the best new sandwich in town.

“It’s the greatest food around,” regular David Allen said. “It’s unlike other places like Subway and Quiznos that use presliced meat and frozen vegetables. Everything you get here is so fresh.”

The shop prides itself on its meats and cheeses, flown in weekly from the East Coast and sliced to order for every sub, store owner Leonard Babaie said.

Visitors can choose from a wide range of hot sandwiches such as “The Big Kahuna,” Philly cheesesteak and meatball and cheese, or cold subs such as tuna and vegetarian or the resounding favorite, the Italian.

Most customers order the hot sandwiches “Mike’s Way,” which adds onion, lettuce, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and oregano, Babaie said.

“The sandwiches are delicious,” Michael Neri said, who stops in about once a week to get a regular Italian.

The only downside may be the price, which is about $8 for a regular sub, but it’s well worth it because of the quality of the ingredients, he said.

Babaie opened the shop — one of more than 300 locations nationwide — in March after becoming a devout fan of the chain.

“When I had my first sandwich I just fell in love,” he said. “So I started driving to Camarillo every other day — which is at least 100 miles — just because I had a craving.”

So Babaie decided to solve the distance problem by opening a store close to his Glendale home.

The Burbank location is the 20th shop in California and the first in Los Angeles County.

The company plans to open other shops in Glendale and Pasadena in the next year, manager Charles Holling said.

Customers rave about the homemade bread and cookies baked fresh every morning and the friendly “crew members,” who cheerfully greet customers when they come through the door, customer Brian Sheehan said.

The company started in 1956 with an Italian deli in Point Pleasant, N.J. Employee Peter Cancro bought the shop in 1987 after taking out a loan from his high school football coach, who was a banker. Cancro opened a few more locations in the town and expanded the chain nationally by the end of the year.

New Jersey native Tim Broderick grew up eating Jersey Mike’s and was thrilled when the Burbank location opened near his job at Paramount Pictures.

“It was so exciting to see one open in Burbank, and it’s the same taste as the shop on the East Coast,” he said. “It’s just such a good sandwich.”