By June, 1976 Erik's Deli had made enough profits to open a second deli in Capitola. Carrying the name Erik's DeliCafé, locations in Aptos, Santa Cruz and Los Gatos followed shortly thereafter. Unwilling to sacrifice his standards of quality for growth, in February of 1977 Johnson rented and later purchased a warehouse in the Harvey West Park area of Santa Cruz. Johnson designed the location to house a commercial kitchen and later the corporate offices. To this day, all of Erik's fresh soups, salads, dinner entrees and baked goods are still prepared from Erik's original family recipes, enabling the DeliCafés to serve products that are made from scratch and contain no preservatives. As the demand for more DeliCafés grew, the Cupertino DeliCafé became the first franchise in April, 1986.