Own Your Own restaurant competition runner-up opens new deli in Burgaw

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Nearly two years after the Own Your Own restaurant competition, the runner-up has opened a new deli in Burgaw.

Junior’s Deli is located on Fremont Street in downtown Burgaw.

It serves freshly-made sandwiches, featuring homemade ingredients.

Owner Vincent Mangual finished in second place during the Own Your Own competition at the Burgaw train depot in 2023.

He lost out to Karoline Schwartz, who won $1-million to design and operate a restaurant.

But just months after winning, Schwartz backed out, and competition organizers reached out to Mangual to open a restaurant in the town.

He said this is the culmination of an incredible journey.

“We were just talking about it in our pre-service meeting with the staff,” Schwartz said. “And how like this whole thing was kind of a joke in the beginning and then it got more serious and more serious and more serious. And then we did the cook-off in the depot. And now we’re in, in the deli on Fremont so it’s a surreal experience for sure.”

The deli had a soft opening two weeks ago.

Mangual said community support has been strong, and they’ve sold, on average, more than 150 sandwiches each day they’ve been open.