Taylor Gourmet’s Federal hoagie. (Photo courtesy of Joe Cereghino/Taylor Gourmet)

Taylor Gourmet has been serving up sandwiches in the D.C. area since 2008, and now the company is expanding to a new region entirely—Chicago.

The fast-casual hoagie purveyor just inked an agreement in the Windy City to bring a shop downtown, a spokesperson for the company confirmed today.

Taylor Gourmet began nearly a decade ago with a single shop on H Street NE, which recently reopened after renovations. Philadelphia cuisine provided the inspiration for the food, but all of the 12 shops (and five more on the way) so far have been in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

Until now.

The lease is for 1 North Dearborn Street in Chicago, in an office building in the middle of the Loop, the city’s business district. The company doesn’t have an opening date yet, and plans to host a series of pop-ups beforehand to introduce its wares to Chicagoans.

Taylor Gourmet already employs more than 300 people in the D.C. region, and it plans to hire approximately 15 more in Chicago. The menu will be the same as it is in D.C., so Taylor favorites like Rittner and the cheesesteak will go up against Chicago sandwich heavies in a town more famous for its pizza and hot dogs than its hoagies.

The company is yet another example of D.C. serving as a launching pad for a fast-casual concept, joining the ranks of Sweetgreen, &pizza, and others in exporting their shops to other regions after finding success in the District. However, many of the other fast-casual joints opted to expand a little closer to home—Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City are all popular choices.

Co-founder Casey Patten has been looking for the next place to branch out, the spokesperson says, and chose Chicago because “he loves that city, he loves the food scene there, he loves the people.”

While Taylor has the one Chi-town lease for now, don’t expect it to stay that way. “Nothing is confirmed, but let’s just say we’re not looking to only open one location in a city that we’re going to,” the spokesperson says.

While Taylor has advertised with a billboard saying, “Less Politics, More Hoagies,” it hasn’t been able to completely live by that mantra. Then-President Barack Obama hosted a small business roundtable at the shop’s 14th Street NW spot in 2012, giving the company a shout out for its successes. Less than a year later, during a government shutdown, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walked to a Taylor location by the White House.

But neither of those moments drew the condemnation of co-founder Casey Patten’s visit to the White House earlier this year, when customers objected to his meeting with President Donald Trump, though Patten maintains he went to “champion my employees.”

That controversy has not gotten in the way of Taylor’s expansion. The sandwich shop keeps rolling out the welcome mat for new spots in the region, including its first Silver Spring location in April.

For Washingtonians looking to try a new Taylor closer to home, the forthcoming 1401 K Street NW location will open its doors later this week—Thursday at 11 a.m.