Glendale News Press
LATimes.com
April 19 2004

Back to baking in Glendale

Glendale family returns to city where bakery business started, with a
new business on Central Avenue.

By Ryan Carter, News-Press

NORTHWEST GLENDALE – When Shakeh Mgerdichians had to move her small
bakery from Glendale to Reseda five years ago, she and her customers
hoped that one day she would come back. And now, they have returned.

Mignon Bakery & Café recently opened at 205 N. Central Ave. with an
expanded menu and hopes of doing healthy business with the nearby
office working population and residential neighborhoods just to the
west of the business.

“I always had in my mind to find a location in Glendale,” she said.
“I never gave up on this city. I am so happy to be back with my old
customers.”

Mgerdichians and her husband Garoush, both immigrants from Iran and
of Armenian descent, started their bakery in 1990 out of an
800-square-foot space on Stocker Street. Mgerdichians, who did not
have a background in baking, took classes to learn how to prepare
pastries. Eventually, sales began to increase to the point that the
couple could cater to Middle Eastern, European and traditional
American tastes in baked goods. They needed to expand. By the late
1990s, they found a larger location in Glendale, but Mgerdichians
said their landlord on Stocker was demanding they renew their lease
or leave, and the new spot was still being constructed. An option
opened up in Reseda on Vanowen Street, so they moved their business
there. It is still there.

Inside the new business, wall murals carry a French theme, and
everything from raspberry mousse to petit fruit tarts await customers
like works of art in a museum.

In contrast to the bakery in Reseda, which is a more traditional
bakery, offering mainly breads, the new bakery also offers an
expanded menu of sandwiches, smoothies, espressos, teas and coffees.
She also designs wedding cakes.

She acknowledged her bakery is not the only one in Glendale. “I never
think of these bakeries as competition because I’m too busy doing
everything I can to bring in my own customers,” she said.