West Coast Sourdough splits in Central Valley, five stores rebrand as Cali Ray's

West Coast Sourdough’s Central Valley split is now visible on storefronts and ordering screens, with five locations in Fresno, Clovis, Madera, Visalia and Porterville rebranding as Cali Ray’s Sourdough Deli while seven others keep the West Coast Sourdough name. For customers, the change is bigger than a sign swap: it marks a break inside a young sandwich chain that built its business on sourdough bread and deli counter loyalty.

The Fresno-area rebrand comes amid a wider dispute involving franchisees, pricing pressure and an ongoing lawsuit. The chain was founded in 2020, and public records and franchise listings show it grew fast, with Restaurant Business reporting 47 California locations in 2025. Other franchise directories have listed 70 units or even more, underscoring how quickly the concept expanded and how messy the public counts have become as ownership and branding shifted.

That growth has not been free of conflict. Court records in Sourdough & Co. v. WCSD, Inc. describe a 2020 trademark and trade-dress fight tied to West Coast Sourdough’s branding. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation also issued a desist-and-refrain order against WCSD, Inc. in 2023 over franchise-law violations. Now the Fresno-area split adds another layer to a business that has repeatedly been forced to defend how it operates and how it presents itself to customers.

The new Cali Ray’s identity is already appearing in public trademark filings for CALI RAYS SOURDOUGH and CALI RAYS SOURDOUGH DELI in 2026. Ordering pages show the brand has launched in Fresno, including locations in the Brawley Avenue and River Park areas, with a menu built around sourdough sandwiches, wraps, soups, salads and flatbreads. A new Rays Faves category also adds protein and fresh mozzarella for a small premium, while one operator who switched said the old corporate approach leaned on price increases as the answer to business problems and offered little guidance.

The rebrand also raises the practical question that matters most to regulars: does the bread still taste the same? One Bakersfield location said the point of the switch was to improve the food, menu and customer experience while keeping ownership, management and staff the same. Karndeep Uppal, who founded the chain and says he was pushed out in 2024 after being locked out of company systems, has framed the business as franchise-first. For customers in a sourdough market where loyalty runs deep, the real test now is whether Cali Ray’s can keep the bread-centric experience intact while resetting the price tag, the menu mix and the trust behind the counter.