Today we’d like to introduce you to Rafi Avakian.
Rafi, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Kuwait to Armenian parents. My father used to have a successful shawarma shop near an industrial zone where workers would line up every day to have lunch. When I was around ten years of age, we decided to relocate back to Beirut, Lebanon. My parents opened up another restaurant in Bourj Hammoud, a city with the largest concentration of Armenians at the time. It was called “Talin Juice”.
I spent my teenage years willingly helping my father out in the kitchen because food had become a part of my identity. We made everything from shawarma and pressed sandwiches to fruit cocktails and Lebanese ice cream. In my early twenties, I got a job at the American Embassy in Lebanon and shortly after met and married my beautiful wife, Rita.
I wanted a better future for my family. Beirut never really was going to offer that for me because the country was always in economic instability. I was offered a job in Abu Dhabi as the personal chef to an extremely prominent family. I was very happy in terms of pay, but there was a huge void in my heart. I couldn’t digest the distance between me and my family. I figured there had to be a better way. So we moved to the United States and I worked as a head chef at multiple Mediterranean restaurants.
At the time, my wife was managing a pastry store. We thought of joining forces and running the store for the owners. They are wonderful people who trusted us and we are grateful to them for the experience we gained. I hadn’t worked in the pastry business before but very quickly adapted to the pastry world. The store ran very successfully for almost 15 years. Customers thought we were the owners because we took care of the business like it was our own. Three years ago, we purchased it and renamed it Maison Rafi. Maison, meaning “house” in French is a tribute to our Francophonic Lebanese background as well as a symbolic home which belongs to every customer who walks through our doors.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We all have our ups and downs in the business. We have to expect tough roads ahead of us to a certain extent and learn how to make the best of everything. Some factors are in our control, and others are not. My vendor can come to me one day and tell me that a certain imported product is no longer available. So I have to think and act fast to maintain the same flavor in the products. Some of the ingredients we use are hard to come by. If we change brands for a certain ingredient due to a scarcity, customers are quick to pick up the flavor change and they keep us on our toes to quickly find a solution for it.
We are a family operated business. Our daughter Narine is the toughest cookie in the whole store. She loves keeping me in check, challenging us, coming up with new ideas both for marketing and for specialty products. Having her own personal business on the side never gets in the way of her pushing us forward towards success. I never see customers leaving the store without laughing or smiling when she’s running the front of the house. Our son Nareg has his own successful career as well now but always arranges his schedule to come and help us out during holidays. Customers are delighted to see him every time, and we are just so thankful for his support. Holidays are extremely tough for us. There are weeks where all of us will be working seven days a week to keep up with the demand but we have learned that hard work truly does pay off. My wife has been my rock throughout this whole process of purchasing the business and starting over.
We are a very small team in the kitchen. I do the majority of the baking. This is why we work mostly on an order basis. We refrain from overproducing so that we can continue providing fresh items daily. A lot of customers who walk in for the first time ask us numerous times if the product they are purchasing is truly fresh. We are always patient, understand that they have trust issues due to past experiences with other pastry stores, and give them the time they need to see how different we are. We have a good selection in stock, but since there are almost a hundred varieties of desserts we are capable of offering, calling ahead is always a good idea.
Maison Rafi – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We specialize in Mediterranean desserts. Customers drive from Ventura County, San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange County, Irvine, San Fernando Valley, Temecula, Las Vegas, etc, to take full sheets of pastries back home with them. We also supply countless restaurants with our vegan baklava to sell on their menus. We pride ourselves in using the best quality ingredients and understand that desserts don’t have to be overly sweet. That’s one of the qualities customers love because everybody is trying to take it easy on the sugar nowadays. Other desired items are our Halawet el Jebn, Shaabiyet, Mshabbak, Awemet, Atayef Asafiry, Milles Feuilles, etc.
I bake with my heart. I bake light-heartedly but also whole-heartedly. That’s what sets me apart. I couldn’t be here without my amazing customers, team and family. I hope I am capable of offering my customers their favorite desserts for many years to come.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
It brings me so much comfort when customers who move further away from Glendora and try pastry stores in their new cities, drive back to Maison Rafi because they say the taste is unmatched. Those compliments from customers are what keep us going regardless of any rough factors that might arise. I keep hearing stories from customers who travel to Beirut for their summer vacations and after tasting desserts from many prestigious patisseries, return telling me my products are on a different level. That makes it all worth it. We believe customer service is of utmost importance. No matter how great our sweets are to customers, if our service is not sweet, there will be an imbalance in the formula. The only people we can be in competition with are ourselves in the kitchen. That’s the only way to improve and rise above our expectations.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1791 E. Route 66
Glendora, CA 91740 - Website: www.maisonrafi.com
- Phone: 626.914.1940
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maisonrafi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Maison-Rafi-740371949469153
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
