Los Angeles Times, CA
March 15 2008
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.
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