Los Angeles may be pizza-challenged, but there are four flatbread artisans who are producing scintillating Middle Eastern equivalents: Arax Bakery and Sasoun Bakery in east Hollywood and Old Sasoon Bakery and Koko’s Bakery in northeast Pasadena.

HOLLYWOOD

Arax Bakery – Hollywood, CA
4871 Santa Monica Boulevard
, 323 666 7313

Arax Bakery opened in Little Armenia in 1986. It’s named for an Armenian river. Vrej Tolmajian continues to use old family recipes, rising every morning before sunrise to make fresh pastes, fillings and toppings, and of course to bake. After Tolmajian fires the breads, he sets them on the retail counter to cool. You have the option to re-heat your choices in the oven, which restores the just-baked effect and elicits wonderful aromas.

Spinach and cheese bread is a fluffy disc brushed with olive oil and topped with chopped spinach, onions and mozzarella-like Armenian cheese. Lahmajun is Arax’s biggest seller, a crispy millimeters-thin disc topped with ground beef and zesty tomato sauce. During Lent, Arax uses ground mushrooms instead of beef. During those forty days, Tolmajian also offers a half-moon shaped pocket filled with tahini paste, chard and garbanzo beans. The molive roll is a fluffy creation rolled around minced olives and zatar, a Middle Eastern spice mixture that includes thyme, sumac and oregano. 
Spicy olive bread comes slathered with spicy, olive-studded tomato-paste. The lip-sting is well worth it. Arax Bakery also offers pull-apart frisbees flavored with tahini paste. Specify whether you want it well-done or lightly-cooked. Well-done, the tahini and sugar tend to caramelize a bit more.

Sasoun Bakery – Hollywood, CA
5114 Santa Monica Boulevard
, 
323 661 1868
625 East Colorado Boulevard,
 Glendale, 818 502 5059
18135 Sherman Way
, Reseda, 818 881 9988
 (Inside Jons)

Sasoun Bakery and Arax Bakery share supremacy on Santa Monica Boulevard. There is definitely some overlap, but both bakeries offer unique specialties, meaning they’re both worth frequenting.


Baker David Yeretsian has built a bakery empire that includes Sasoun locations in Glendale and Reseda. He’s been at it for 25 years, but every morning, he still manages to fill the steel shelves at his Hollywood original with torpedo-shaped cheese boereks, their triangular spinach equivalents and round, thin-crust lahmajunes.


Yeretsian’s foot-long cheese boereks contain semi-sweet cheese and a smattering of red chilies. They’re incredible, simultaneously sweet, salty and spicy, with delicately crispy exteriors. Small cheese boereks feature a tamer flavor profile, flecked with mint.


Each whisper-thin lahmajune is topped with seasoned ground beef that’s tinged with tomato. Every maneishe is blanketed with zatar, a savory Middle Eastern spice mixture that includes oregano, sumac and thyme. When ordering these, make sure to keep a toothpick handy. 
The final must-have item is the disc of sesame-flavored tahini bread. During the baking process, the sesame paste and sugar is practically caramelized, leading to what amounts to an oversized Middle Eastern cookie.

Yeretsian’s foot-long cheese boereks contain semi-sweet cheese and a smattering of red chilies. They’re incredible, simultaneously sweet, salty and spicy, with delicately crispy exteriors. Small cheese boereks feature a tamer flavor profile, flecked with mint. Triangular boereks cradle a tangy tangle of spinach that’s seasoned with onions and lemon juice.

It’s always dilemma-inducing to drive down Santa Monica Boulevard. Will it be Sasoun Bakeryor Arax Bakery? There are days where I stop at both, which is really the best compromise.

PASADENA

Glendale may be better known for Middle Eastern food, but Northeast Pasadena features a treasure trove of Armenian, Lebanese and Syrian options, including sit-down restaurants, delis and two stellar bakeries: Koko’s and Old Sasoon.

Koko’s Bakery – Pasadena, CA
1674 East Washington Boulevard,
 626 798 2543

In 1991, Krikor “Koko” Saghbazarian and wife Houri opened their bakery in a charming timeworn building. Koko’s grandfather was a baker in Armenia who was forced to escape to Lebanon during the genocide. Koko and his wife moved to Boston, where son Michael was born, then proceeded to Pasadena to continue his craft. A dry-erase board lists 14 styles of savory Armenian breads and pies, including two varieties of Armenian baked goods that I’ve never encountered before.

Open Cheese is a pull-part flatbread topped with mild white Armenian cheese, ground mint and red pepper flakes. There may not be a single Los Angeles pizzeria that produces such a well-balanced crust, not too puffy, not at all dry, with just the right amount of bite. Soujouk “pie” combines white cheese, red pepper flakes and chewy cuts of spicy Armenian sausage known as soujouk - beef sausage flavored with garlic powder and paprika - purchased from nearby Garo’s Basturma. Terrific. Koko normally pulls steaming lahmajunes from the oven at 12:30 PM, so best time your visit with that momentous event.

Old Sasoon Bakery - Pasadena
1132 North Allen Avenue
, 626 791 3280

Haroutioun Geragosian began working at a bakery in Aleppo, Syria, at age 13 in order to supply his family with bread. Geragosian absorbed baking wisdom and opened his own business in 1948, calling it Old Sasoon Bakery, named for a village in Armenia that his grandparents left after World War II. He relocated his family and bakery to Pasadena in 1986, selling just lahmajunes, cheese and spinach beorags. Son Joseph Geragosian is now in charge of daily operations, working alongside sister Caroline and mother Archalous. Joseph has expanded Old Sasoon’s offerings to include 17 breads, a selection that’s unparalleled in L.A. County.


The Manaiesh Sandwich is truly special, and shockingly affordable, a zahtar-dusted flatbread lined with rows of mint leaves, tomatoes, green olives and crispy raw onions. The manaiesh is then rolled up, which makes for easy eating. 

Zahtar, Chile and Onion is a manaiesh with the added bonus of hot pepper paste and onions. The color is incredible, a rich burgundy, and the bread has a nice spice kick. For Soujouk and Cheese bread, Joseph makes the garlicky, spice-flecked ground beef sausage in-house using white Cacique cheese, a Mexican cow’s milk cheese that doesn’t turn to plastic in the fridge. Another favorite is a crisp-edged pastry pocket filled with finely chopped Swiss chard (Panjar), tahini paste, onions and “seasonings.” Joseph also fills bread with basturma, sheets of Armenian cured beef, which he buys as needed down the street at Garo’s Basturma.


Two years ago, Joseph added sweets, including nut-crammed baklava fingers, pistachio nests and walnut-filled cookies called mamoul. If you’re feeling especially ambitious, it’s possible to order a 45-pound lamb, stuffed with rice pilaf, ground beef, nuts and spices.

NOTE: The names of some of the same breads are spelled differently. That’s intentional, since the bakeries spell them differently.

Related Posts

1. Sasoun Bakery – Hollywood, CA - Friday, May 9, 2008
2. Old Sasoon Bakery - Pasadena, CA - Wednesday, August 13, 2008
3. A. Partamian Bakery – Los Angeles, CA – January 14, 2010
4. Arax Bakery – Hollywood, CA
5. Koko’s Bakery – Pasadena, CA – Saturday, November 15, 2008

1. Pingback: PhilChar Blog » Food GPS » Blog Archive » Round-Up: The Best Middle Eastern … on February 14, 2009
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3 Comments

1. H.C., February 14, 2009:

   Great wrap up (pun intended)! Next time I get a flatbread craving (at least once a week) I’ll definitely take a peek at these places. I love Arax, a great appetizer to Scoops

2. Teenage Glutster, February 14, 2009:

   PCC Spring semester here I come!

3. mattatouille, February 18, 2009:

   dag, i’m so hungry right now!

This entry is filed under Bakery, California, Los Angeles, Middle Eastern, Southern California.