My Local Kabob Spot, Gone Viral – liam waldman, ‘22

Mini Kabob is an unassuming-yet-delicious restaurant that’s been open for nearly 40 years. Social media has both redefined and uplifted what “mom-and-pop-shop” means for its business model.

Living in Glendale for the past five years, I have witnessed numerous changes to one of Los Angeles’ most prominent neighborhoods. Explosive development in the form of apartment buildings, businesses, and office buildings has largely blossomed out from the Americana, an outdoor mall owned by Los Angeles mayoral hopeful, Rick Caruso. Beyond Brand Boulevard, however, many pockets of the city— known for its prominent Armenian population— remain perilously untouched by booming development. Perhaps no such establishment has embodied the complexities of mass-development and gentrification more than Mini Kabob: a quintessential mom-and-pop restaurant that has existed for decades, and that has received widespread fanfare by way of social media in just the past few years.

I recently showed up to Mini Kabob, mere blocks from my home, at the quiet hour of 8:30 AM. Flanked on one side by a strip mall, and on the other, a tiny Quaker church, Mini Kabob is emblematic of an older Glendale. Featuring an orange and clay-colored stone facade, the restaurant is small— only housing two tables, both of which have been out of order since before the pandemic. For now, the operation is to-go only. On this particular March morning, the facade was blocked by a burgeoning crowd of Quaker church attendants.

Don’t be fooled by its humble features– Mini Kabob is a powerhouse restaurant, recognized with accolades and long waiting lists that contribute to what has become a world-class establishment. Featured in the New York Times Top 50 Restaurant List for 2021, Mini Kabob was one of only three Los Angeles area restaurants to accomplish that feat.

I met up recently with Armen Martirosyan, who runs Mini Kabob alongside his father, Ovakim, and mother, Alvard. I have come to know Armen over the past few years and have also witnessed how Mini Kabob’s meteoric rise has impacted wait times.

The lineage of Mini Kabob has largely been both intentional and successful, says Martirosyan. “Mini Kabob started 37 years ago. Pops took over 27 years ago, brought my mom on board, kept it a mom and pop shop, and I’ve been there since. I’ve left to get my feet wet, [work at] other restaurants, learn from other people, and moved up from there. [I] came back to Mini Kabob 8 years ago and the goal was to just increase sales, increase traffic, start to take it to another level.”

Armen’s strategy later came to fruition; “When I came here, I started Instagram for Mini Kabob, I started my own Instagram page– a variety of Instagram pages across market to bring in different areas of the market. Now we’re Instagram verified, we do TikTok, we do Facebook although Facebook’s dead, nobody likes Facebook.”

Armen boasts nearly 50,000 Instagram followers on his own account, where he largely posts food-related content, while Mini Kabob has around 35,000 followers of its own. These are envious numbers for other small businesses, which translate into Mini Kabob’s success in an economic climate that is typically unsustainable for other mom-and-pop restaurants. In December 2021, Time Magazine wrote about how the already-improbable chances at viability that restaurants face were further challenged by the pandemic, which simultaneously increased ingredient prices and job vacancies. Locally, Los Angeles Magazine has kept a list of every restaurant shuttered by the pandemic. The list includes favorites such as Jun Won in Koreatown and Wah’s Golden Hen in Virgil Village.

In some ways, Mini Kabob is exactly the same as many of the mom-and-pop restaurants that have recently closed. A primary difference, however, is that Mini Kabob leverages its status, and isn’t afraid to highlight its humble quirks. By utilizing social media as a tool and not an obstacle, Mini Kabob has successfully adapted to a restaurant economy that has otherwise become dependent on successful marketing and an ability to go viral. Instead of either leaning towards the fast-casual concept that has been packaged and re-packaged by different restaurant concepts time and time again or simply ceasing to exist, Mini Kabob has developed in the manner of a mom-and-pop shop, albeit with a huge amount of followers and endorsements.

“You got me, my mom, my dad. We do all the prep work every day. We have social media. We have this cute little mom-and-pop shop that’s run down, it’s got tagging on this Armenian sign on the top. Nothings’ really been changed, which brings in the whole nostalgia factor that LA loves to consume,” Martirosyan said.

Marketing strategy is only one variable- and Mini Kabob has also gained popularity simply because it makes incredible food. In a typical order, one would expect to find springy kebabs of chicken luleh, glistening with fat and vigorously flavored to taste simultaneously bright, yet savory. The kebab is served upon the fluffy– albeit butter-coated– rice. Then, there is the hummus which is light and smooth, characterized by zingy lemon. Alongside that are raw sweet onions topped with a charred tomato and pepper. Orders also come with lavash bread, to encapsulate and uplift the contents of one’s order, as well as a side of Garlic toum, which adds a distinctive fieriness to every bite.

Getting an order to-go, however, can prove to be slightly complicated. “Wednesday to Sunday 11-6 we’re open. Typically on the weekend, the wait could jump to 2-3 hours, depending on the coverage we get the week before. When the New York Times story came out we jumped to a five-hour wait, but that’s an outlier. Typically the weekdays are 35-45 minutes,” Martirosyan said.

Stable success is not all Martirosyan is after, however. He cites plans to open Mini Kabob locations in other cities as a prime opportunity to “start educating about Armenian cuisine.” Glendale prominently houses 80,000 Armenians, the second largest population of Armenians in a city, only behind Yerevan in Armenia itself. The Armenian diaspora was largely shaped by the Armenian genocide, which saw over 1.5 million being killed by the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. Armenians moved around the world, with many settling in other parts of the Middle East, especially Iran. After instability in Iran under the shah forced more out, waves of Armenians from around the diaspora converged upon Los Angeles, and eventually Glendale.

Glendale can tend to feel like a world of its own. With such a localized population and a location on the outskirts of a gargantuan city, Glendale has developed its own ecosystem, with local establishments that typically cater to its own— largely Armenian— population. Mini Kabob has looked outside of its immediate surroundings and towards social media as not only a means of survival but also as a chance to expand the fame of Armenian cuisine.

Mini Kabob is delicately toeing the line between a delicious mom-and-pop establishment and a social-media-driven and critically renowned restaurant. Even the name of the restaurant is catchy in its own right, yet mysteriously intriguing. One might ask, “What is a Mini Kabob?”

Martirosyan was quick to answer, “Ultimately it’s a wrap, but we don’t even have it on the menu anymore.”