For several years, Mardiros and other members of the family fought over various aspects of the business, including the rights to the Zankou name. The business’ patriarch, Vartkes, died in 1992. But his parents balked at the idea, and Mardiros struck out on his own, opening Zankou branches in Anaheim, Glendale, Pasadena and Van Nuys. The oldest of their three children, Mardiros, worked with them in the restaurant and had ambitious plans to expand the operation, even to Paris. The couple eventually fled war-torn Lebanon and in 1984 opened the first Zankou in America on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Their shop was tiny, but the tangy garlic sauce that Markrid invented distinguished it from the competition. Zankou Chicken started humbly - it was founded in Beirut in 1962 by Armenian couple Vartkes and Markrid Iskenderian. “But people haven’t seen a multi-state chain doing this type of food before.” “Chinese food has a very broad appeal so does Mexican food,” Ludington said. But there’s a heightened risk when moving beyond the traditional hamburger and fried chicken staples in a fast-casual chain. He thinks a chain like Zankou with Middle Eastern-inspired food could catch on in diverse metropolitan areas. “There are a lot of attractive locations right now that you can get in some very prime locations for next to nothing,” said Brad Ludington, a senior restaurant analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.
They just want the same things when they go to any in the chain.”Įven though the economy is far from robust, it could be a good time for a small chain to take the plunge. “The customer doesn’t know who owns what. “The danger is if they don’t meet up to customers’ expectations - if they have different prices or different recipes,” said Bonnie Riggs, a restaurant industry analyst with NPD Group. “There are too many bad feelings.”Ĭhain restaurants depend on a strong central core that demands uniformity in the branches. “I don’t think things can be fixed,” Iskenderian said. And that’s not a good recipe for expansion. In 2003, the fight reached horrific proportions when her husband, the son of Zankou’s founders, fatally shot his mother and sister.Īlthough the two sides now coexist, there is no real peace. “Everybody is doing their business, but the relations are bad,” said Rita Iskenderian, who, with her four sons, runs eight of the restaurants. And that family is at war, with two factions long in battle over the chain. So why has expansion of the chain, which debuted in Hollywood in 1984 and once had dreams of spreading across the nation and even to Europe, been so tough?Īlthough there are signs that it’s finally getting off the ground - five more Zankous opened in Southern California in recent years, bringing the total to 10 - it’s a family-run business.
Zankou was even mentioned in a Beck song, “Debra.” Critics as far away as New York have swooned over its secret garlic sauce, and the Zagat Guide has called its chicken dinner “the single best takeout dish in town.” Families line up at the little restaurant chain’s counters for moderately priced rotisserie entrees.
0 kommentar(er)
