Hayk the Ubiquitous Armenian

Partamian Bakery Visited

2008-09-16T13:05:00.001-07:00

On September 6th I finally had the chance to visit this bakery. As I was driving on Adams Blvd. comparing the building numbers to the address I had written down on paper, I was beginning to doubt that I was heading in the right direction—not because the block numbers weren't getting closer to my destination address, but rather because I saw no signs of an Armenian neighborhood on the streets. There were numerous Hispanic stores to my left and right and the people walking the streets were nearly all Hispanic or African-American. Maybe I was on the East block of Adams and the Armenian neighborhood was on the West? Or maybe I would soon arrive at a very small, concentrated, block of Armenian homes and shops. But no, before I knew it I saw the unassuming sign of Partamian Bakery in the middle of this inner-city neighborhood.

After circling the few blocks around the bakery for parking, I finally found a spot not too far away and made my way to the bakery. Once inside, the emptiness of the bakery was probably the first thing to hit me. Not only was I the only customer in the store, but the place itself looked extremely bare: no fancy decorations, no mouth-watering pastries displayed behind glass (as it turns out Partamian does mostly hot foods rather than pastries), just a lot of walking space with a few shelves in the middle of the store containing some jarred foods and a few breads. Next thing that caught my attention were the two people working at the store: it was the same two (Francisco and Jose) who were pictured in the original LA Times article that drew me to this bakery.

Although not nearly as popular as bakeries in the Glendale area, Partamian gets many large orders from organizations, churches, and other group events all across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley (while I was there, they were preparing a large order of lahmajunes for Ararat Home in Mission Hills).

I ordered a lahmajune and picked up a drink from their fridge filled with "Mexican Coca-Colas" (Coca-Colas in small glass containers made with real sugar cane—unlike the domestic kind that uses high-fructose corn syrup), Jarritos, and a few types of beer. I took a seat an one of the two circular patio dinning tables, both of which have seen more than their share of use over the years. My main motivation for eating inside the bakery was to get a glimpse of what kind of customers the bakery received. After about 5 minutes a man walked in, very casually spoke to the owners as if he'd known them for years, and ordered a few items to go. Judging from his complexion I got the impression that he was Armenian. So what better way to find out than to ask:

"Excuse me sir, are you Armenian?"

Silence for about 5 seconds while the man analyzed this complete stranger asking him questions.

"Does the Pope shit in the woods?"

Good thing I have watched The Big Lebowski and knew exactly where this quote was from. To make a long story short, it turned out that this gentleman was in fact Armenian. He came over sat down and we ate our lunch together while we spoke for a good hour about everything from the movies to the neighborhood. I learned that the neighborhood where the bakery is had its good share of Armenians a few decades back, mostly from a small village in south central Turkey called Antep (now known as Gaziantep). But over the years these Armenians moved out and today there is no remnant left other than Partamian Bakery.

About the food: the lajmajune was by far the best lajmajune I have ever ate—and I may not have grown up in a culture that eats lajmajune every other day as snack, but I have certainly tried my fair share in LA over the last few years. I also purchased a few cheese and spinach boregs (the boregs come frozen and need to be heated in the oven before eating) to take home with me for a family gathering I was attending that night. These boregs were so popular that let's just say I could have bought three times as many as I bought that day and they would still have been consumed faster than any other meal on the table. They were delicious.

Aram and Aram

2008-07-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a road trip to Northern California. On the trip we stopped at two shops which were listed on the Hayk.net website as Armenian establishments: Aram's Cafe in Petaluma and Aram Bakery in San Jose.

Aram's Cafe was much more than I expected in terms of its Armenian influence in a city considerably far from any Armenian community. Upon entering the restaurant, you see the two tall walls on your left and right are draped with Armenian decoration: rugs, the ubiquitous William Saroyan poster, maps of Armenia, photos of Echmiadzin, and much more. The menu was also impressive as there were numerous items which referred to "Armenian" this and that. Taste wise I'd have to say the place was not bad, but certainly nothing to boast about.

On the other end of the spectrum was Aram Bakery. Who would have ever thought that a place named Aram would not be Armenian owned? Certainly not I. Well, it is apparently owned by an Iranian and the selection of pastries certainly attested to that. No gatas. No nazooks. No Armenian pastries. Oh well, at least now we all know. It has been removed from the hayk.net listing.

Minassian-Young Winery

2008-06-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I made a visit to Paso Robles, CA--one of the premier wine regions in California after Napa and Sonoma. During our visit there we came across a winery with the name Minassian-Young and of course I had to inquire about it's origin. After speaking with David Young, the owner, it turns out that he does in fact have a partial Armenian background. David's grandfather was an Armenian who escaped the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and fled to Burma (today known as Myanmar). Now after two generations and half-way around the world, here we are in this small town of Paso Robles, California with a winery named after the original family name. And mind you, their wines were pretty good (and this isn't just according to my taste buds, but it did pretty well with other reviewers as well).

Unfortunately the circumstances (we were at a wine festival) were not ideal for asking detailed questions about David's family line over the years or how he chose to name his winery even though he doesn't use the Minassian name in his own surname. We'll leave that for another visit.

Site Updates

2008-04-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Slowly, but surely, I have begun updating the site again. I don't foresee myself having much time the next month or two, but I will try to put in a little bit of time each week towards the site. For beginners, we now have social bookmarking links added for easily adding, sharing, and spreading Hayk the Ubiquitous Armenian.

Mexican Bakers at Armenian Bakery in Los Angeles

2008-04-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

Interesting article I was forwarded by a friend a few weeks ago. Thought it was worth putting up here.

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http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/15/local/me-armenian15

From the Los Angeles Times
Quality Armenian bakers from . . . Mexico?
Two childhood friends from Zacatecas went to work for baker Leon Partamian in 1975. On his death they inherited his shop, which they now run.
By Bob Pool
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 15, 2008

Their backgrounds are more burrito than boreg.

So how did a pair of childhood buddies from Zacatecas, Mexico, turn into two of Los Angeles' most popular Armenian bakers?

On West Adams Boulevard, Francisco Rosales and Jose Gonzales did it by adopting Leon Partamian's family recipes -- and then getting "adopted" by Partamian themselves.

The crusty owner of the 60-year-old A. Partamian Bakery in the Mid-City area liked the way they cooked his sarma and lahmajune. And he liked the two of them.

So when Partamian died 17 months ago, he gave his bakery business -- and the building that houses its vintage ovens and bread display cases -- to both of them.

Partamian's gift has brought a sigh of relief to longtime Armenian American customers who feared that the weathered storefront bakery would be shuttered and used for something else in a neighborhood that in recent decades has turned from white to black and now brown.

"This is the best lahmajune anywhere. It is the absolute best," said Gail Deovlet Chancellor, 62, a homemaker who lives in Huntington Beach and travels to the bakery to shop. "It took me an hour and 15 minutes to drive here. But it's worth it."

Like most of Leon Partamian's longtime customers, Chancellor knew of the shopkeeper's desire to eventually pass the bakery on to his two loyal bakers. He had never married and had no children.

"After we'd been working with him 20 or 25 years he was telling customers that he was going to leave the store to his 'boys' when he was gone," Rosales said.

Partamian had quickly taken his two young bakers under his wing.

He helped them obtain green cards and with other family immigration issues. He loaned them money when his "boys" had an emergency.

But Partamian left no written will when in late 2006 he died unexpectedly at age 73 of a heart attack

. It took more than a year for his heirs to wade through probate paperwork so they could sign over the business and its building to Rosales and Gonzales, both 56.

Rosales immigrated to the U.S. in 1969 and Gonzales in 1971. They were dishwashers in a Bob's Big Boy restaurant in 1975 when they were introduced to Partamian. He offered them both jobs.

It took about six months for the pair to learn how to craft the delicacies that Partamian was famous for: the boreg, paklava, sarma and the lahmajune -- the eight-inch circles of dough topped with ground lamb, tomatoes and bell peppers and cooked in a 450-degree oven.

"It was not hard for us. We learned very fast. The recipes are a little complicated. Leon showed us how much pepper and garlic and other spices to use," Rosales remembers. "We use black pepper and garlic in Mexico, but not black nigella and mahlab. I never saw that in Mexico.

"I grew up with tamales and tacos. But when I tried Armenian food I liked it. And Leon was such a nice man."

It didn't take long after starting with Partamian for Gonzales and Rosales to learn that the A. Partamian Bakery was best known for its lahmajune, with customers coming from across the Los Angeles basin and San Fernando Valley for the little lamb pies some call Armenian pizzas.

They soon found themselves baking around 500 of them a day. At Christmas and on other holidays, when lahmajune is reheated, sliced into wedges and served as party appetizers, that number soared to nearly 1,000, according to Gonzales.

Soon, Partamian was referring to his two young bakers as "my boys" and gave some of their family members jobs in the bakery.

Rosales' son, Raul, now an LAX garage attendant, worked there as a teenager. "Our kids called Leon 'Grandpa,' " said his wife, Mirna Vargas, of daughters Crystal, 9, and Viviane, 5.

Vargas occasionally helped at the bakery before giving birth nine months ago to son Robert Rosales.

The two Mexican bakers never learned to speak Armenian. But that was no problem, since Armenian shoppers all spoke English. Gonzales and Rosales quickly learned the names of the Armenian baked goods that each day filled Partamian's shelves. The first name they learned was lahmajune.

The little pizzas were always the little shop's big draw.

"I've been coming here since I was a little girl, probably about 7, for my lahmajune," said Myrna Suttice, 47, a caterer who lives in the Fairfax District.

She is not of Armenian descent, but the lamb pies were popular snacks for youngsters growing up in the Mid-City neighborhood, Suttice said. Partamian knew all the children by name and asked to see their report cards. Good grades earned them free bakery treats.

"I was so glad when Leon handed this place down and it didn't get closed," Suttice said.

So was Audrey Hovsepian. The Ladera Heights septuagenarian had known members of the Partamian family for decades.

"Mr. Partamian was a very kind man. He'd bring his mother to St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in a wheelchair when she got older. We all knew his plan was to leave the bakery to his 'boys.' We just didn't know he hadn't written it down."

Partamian's niece, Norma Kurkjian, said there was never any doubt the family would honor his wishes.

He had made it clear he wanted Rosales and Gonzales to continue, she said.

Kurkjian, a retired teacher who lives in Northridge, said some advised the family to sell the business. The property at 5410 W. Adams Blvd. was appraised for about $500,000, she said.

"But he wanted the bakery to go to the 'boys' because they were loyal to him for 35 years and they bake authentically. He wanted them to have financial security."

Still, though, "it's hysterical to go in and see these two Mexican men making grape leaf and sou boreg. It's such a hoot."

Rosales and Gonzales live with their families several blocks from the bakery. Since Partamian's death, they have worked 12-hour days, six days a week, without a vacation.

Partamian's death was a shock, according to the pair. "He left the store on Saturday and never came back on Monday," said Rosales.

Partamian's legacy is a good one, agreed Chancellor, whose parents held her by the hand the first time she stepped inside the tiny shop and peered into the display case at the stacks of freshly baked lahmajune.

Her parents, Dewey and Gladys Deovlet, were Armenian immigrants who dropped the "ian" from Deovletian so they could more easily find jobs. They were customers when Abraham Partamian opened the bakery in 1948.

Abraham Partamian's sons, Charles and Leon, worked there, helping him and their mother, Victoria, bake peda bread and meat boreg, a turnover filled with ground lamb, and lahmajune.

When his parents died, Leon Partamian took over the bakery.

"Mr. Partamian was always 'Mr.' Partamian. That was the way we addressed him. We never used first names," Chancellor said.

She looked at photos of Partamian and mementos of his life that Gonzales and Rosales display above the shop's front counter.

"Mr. Partamian was much loved," she said.

And on West Adams Boulevard, two loyal employees know that better than anyone.

bob.pool@latimes.com

Providence, RI Community Added

2007-10-14T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well I finally got around to adding the Armenian community of Providence, RI to the website. We visited Providence on August 25th on a one day pass-through trip. It was not an ideal day for picture taking, which is why some of the pictures have sun spots in them.

Unfortunately we did not get to see or experience much of the Armenian community as most places were closed and not much was happening on that Saturday. After doing the photo round at all the churches, we ended up at a small shop called Sonia's Near East Market & Deli. The deli at Sonia's carried numerous sandwiches, but also had Armenian appetizer plates with salma, hummus, olives, feta cheese, salad, and much more. Being very hungry, we ordered the largest appetizer plate available, and I must admit it turned out to be one of the best Armenian dish plates I have ever ate.

After finishing our food we started some conversation with the employees at the store. It turned out that it was a family owned business that had been open for just under a year. Everyone who worked there was related one way or another: cousins, aunts, uncles, spouses, etc. I spoke a bit with the guy who had prepared our entree and got his name and business card (unfortunately I lost this somewhere en route to getting back home. If you are that person and are reading this please contact me as I'd like to have your contact info again.) It was nice to finally get to talk to some Armenians in Providence, as our first 3.5 hours of driving around the city in search of the churches yielded not a single Armenian since all the churches were closed.

Since returning back home from Providence I have been reading Varoujan Karentz's Mitchnapert: The Citadel, which is a 388 page book on the history of Armenians in Rhode Island. Based on the book, it appears that the Armenian community there has alway been, and still today is very strong: organizations are plentiful, church membership is fairly healthy, and the community has produced numerous local and national people of significance who have not forgotten their Armenian roots, culture, and heritage. One of the more surprising things noted in the book is that between 2000-2002, "almost sixty per cent of marriages and baptisms are now of mixed [Armenian with non-Armenian] marriages" (p. 339). This is very different than what we have here in Southern California, but of course it is due to the fact that the Providence community is much older compared to the Armenian communities of Glendale, Pasadena, and Hollywood. I wonder if we will see that rate here in Southern California in another few decades.....

San Francisco Section Updated with Oorenk Article

2007-10-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

Added a little snippet (4 pages) from Oorenk Books' edition on the San Francisco Armenian community. Oorenk published this book in August '07, but I know that they had been working on it for a long time now. I actually found out about Oorenk back in June/July '06. After contacting them, I got in touch with one of their editors, Edna, and we ended up meeting one day at a coffee shop.

At the time, they were still collecting funds to get their magazine (at the time it was envisioned as a magazine) up and going. We spoke for a good hour. I realized how similar their vision of the magazine was to what I was doing with my website. I wish I could have been of help, but unfortunately there was not much I could do.

After this meeting, Edna and I had sporadic email communication, but after a few months of no activity on their website and no word from Edna I figured that Oorenk was never going to materialize. I was obviously wrong. In August of '07 I received a surprise email from Oorenk telling me that their first book, in a series of more to come, had finally been published.

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who made it happen. Great book.

With their permission, I have posted a short snippet of the book on the San Francisco Bay Area section of Hayk (under the Related Articles & Links section on the right). Enjoy, and please support them by spending the money to buy the full book....it is more affordable than you may expect.

First Blog

2007-10-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I never thought the day would come that I would start blogging. As a matter of fact, I am still skeptical about this whole undertaking. So let it be stated right from the get go, as I don't want my (future) captivated audience to be in dismay when the day comes: I may get tired of this blogging thing very soon and just stop updating it. But only time will tell, so let's get on with the show.

This blog is mainly meant to keep a news brief of what is happening on my website: Hayk the Ubiquitous Armenian. As a consequential effect of keeping true to the "blogging" ideology (that of articulating every detail of one's life--regardless of its significance for the reader), I will try to include a little more verbiage with each news brief about the site. This may include my experiences visiting an Armenian community, meeting individuals of interest, or what constituted certain additions/updates to the website. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?