but Heaven! The slightly charred chicken compliments the other strong flavors very well, makes them a little more mellow and brings them back together.įor those in the know - *what* exactly are those pickles. It's all about the garlic paste, pickles, and small peppers - all very strong competing flavors, the result is difficult to describe. The sandwiches are simple in their construction - a folded pita (from plastic bag - not made fresh) a very pungent, thick, white garlic sauce (perhaps a little olive oil?) chicken cut from a rotating spit (similar to how gyros are cooked - the chicken meat is probably 90% white, and almost like butterflied breasts stacked up on the spit) neon pink pickles (the type of which I'm not sure), ranging from small slivers to several inches long (cut like a french fry) and small, very hot yellow peppers (somewhat similar to pepperoncini, but much smaller and hotter). You'd think that surly service, coupled with the harsh neon lights and less-comfortable-than-a-picnic-bench seating would keep me away, but I couldn't make it through a month without eating at Zankou *at least* twice - and often significantly more. To me, the service at Zankou is beyond apathetic - it's downright surly (at least in Van Nuys - my experiences at the Hollywood location were slightly better). In another thread today, I made mention of my very low tolerance to apathetic service. M: "It's only 9:40, you don't close until 10" Me: "Two chicken schwerma, extra pickle & peppers" During a point in my career when I was working late a lot, probably two nights a week I'd push myself to get out of the office so that I could make it to Zankou before they closed. Before New York, I lived in Sherman Oaks, less than a mile from the Van Nuys Zankou location. “If a restaurant is divided, it will eventually fail,” says the same Marjik brother named for his grandfather the father of one of L.A.’s favorite dishes.Zankou Chicken is one of my favorites. With both families striving for growth of the restaurant, we’re hoping Zankou and the family members who feel so connected to this piece of their–and our– heritage manage a happy ending, despite a horrific tragedy. Industry analysts also say it would be a good time to take advantage of cheaper real estate.
As many hungry Angelenos already know, Zankou locations have inconsistencies in both experience and prices, something all heirs agree are impeding its expansion, eerily one of the very issues that started the arguing that eventually set Mardiros off.ĭivided for more than seven years after the tragedy, and despite the addition of a few locations locally, once red-hot Zankou appeared mostly stagnant through the last decade at a time they should have become a national name. The other eight Zankou’s are operated by a different daughter of the founding family, who says “I don’t think things can be fixed,” when asked about the rift that existed even before the killings, following the death of founder Vartkes Iskenderian.
The restaurants in Hollywood and Montebello are owned by the Marjik brothers (whose mother was shot by her brother, Mardiros ) in conjunction with an aunt.
Fans doubtlessly wondered, so what exactly happened to Zankou’s momentum? Times looks at the family’s tattered relations, revealing that the chain’s far-reaching expansion plan has been slowed by infighting and self-described “bad feelings” between two sides of the same family. with the city’s beloved rotisserie chicken and garlic sauce. In 2003, the son of Zankou Chicken’s founders killed his sister and mother, then himself, casting a tragic pall over the Middle Eastern chicken chain that was rapidly gaining fame beyond L.A.
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