Tujunga, located along the 210 freeway corridor that connects Pasadena with points north, has a healthy Armenian-American population. The owners named this bakery for Armenia’s tallest peak, featuring European pastries, Armenian flatbreads and packaged baklava. Jhengyalov bread, aka zhengyalov hatz, bakes with minced greens and displays beautiful tang and color.

Ashot Togramajyan was born in Armenia and moved to Turkey when he was two years old. At his “Mediterranean restaurant in Reseda, Ash flies an Armenian flag and dots his menu with Turkish dishes. He bakes pita and flatbreads in-house. Gözleme is a large half-moon shaped Turkish flatbread with feta, spinach and thin pastry touting crispy crimps that Ash showers with parsley.

This Armenian bakery opened in a strip mall along Broadway in 2019 featuring blackboard menus and a flame-licked oven. Their jhengyalov bread is a vegetable torpedo filled with tangy, rough-chopped greens.

Alan Rudoy and Travis Matoesian go big at their pop-up. Tabletop pizza ovens produce indulgent riffs on dishes from Armenia and beyond like lahmajun, jingalov hats, and batata harra. A winged Erebuni lion, the symbol of Yerevan, yields a pizza peel in their logo.

The name Fresh Bites doesn’t reveal much, but this restaurant is Lebanese and bakes 20 different large savory or sweet flatbreads. Their lahmajun was soft in the middle, with crispy edges and an enlightening lemon wedge. Tahini “pie” was flaky and sesame-rich.

Charlie Succar and brother Mel expanded their ambitious bakery-cafe from Granada Hills to Calabasas in 2021. The Succars added a San Diego outpost in 2023. FurnSaj has the best Lebanese flatbread for indecisive diners. Their 8-topping “Cocktail Mix” with Mana’ish combines “8 different Mediterranean toppings on a single flat bread,” including soujuk, za’atar, and tangy sautéed chard.

Chef Arthur Grigoryan connects ancient culinary traditions from the Armenian diaspora with modern L.A. sensibilities, in convincing fashion. He worked at Pizzeria Mozza, but makes it clear his sturdy, spiced beef topped msalosh, aka lamjaun, is not a pizza.

Shawn Sayegh and brother Elias built on Granada Hills success in Studio City. The Syria natives serve a thin lahmacun with crispy edges that sports 96% ground beef and 4% lamb. Dress with sumac dusted red onions, tomato and lemon to get the full effect.

Mike Saghbazarian runs the front of the house at Koko’s Bakery, which his parents Koko and Houri started 1991 along Washington Boulevard, the main thoroughfare for Pasadena’s vibrant Armenian community. Koko’s Bakery only sells flatbreads in pairs or larger bags. Their 50/50 flatbread combines maneishe (featuring za’atar) and Armenian cheese showered with Aleppo pepper.

Mary Kozanian and family have run this grocery store, bakery, and prepared food emporium in Plaza de Verdugo since 1988. They sell different flatbreads, but none compare to Spinach and Cheese Blossom, a flower shaped creation featuring pull-apart petals filled with feta and mozzarella. Call ahead to make sure their special “blossoms” are available.

This Armenian bakery has been a neighborhood hub for flatbreads and socialization since 2012. Jalapeño & Olive Cheese Boerek is a large, puffy triangle featuring mozzarella, Armenian white cheese, chopped olives and pop from pickled jalapeños.

Hamo and Adrine Novshadyan opened this multi-faceted Armenian & Persian market, butcher shop, deli, and bakery in 2016. Children Amy, Alex and Allen help run the business. A sturdy baked disc stuffed with white button mushrooms stands out.

Diana Gasparyan treats her lahmajunes as a canvas for creative Armenian-Mexican “tacos.” Crispy, supple ground beef flatbreads are available in versions like Meat Lovers Taco (with bacon and aioli) and Surf N Turf (with shrimp, veggies and cilantro sauce).

Joseph Geragosian presides over his family’s bakery, which dates to 1948 in Aleppo, Syria. Any round flatbread is available to form the base of a sandwich, which gets rolled with mint leaves, tomatoes, green olives and crispy raw onions. I recommend selecting their ferocious za’atar, chile and onion flatbread for this purpose. A flatbread stuffed with Swiss chard and tahini is fantastic for Lent.

After experiencing both baking success and turmoil in Syria and Lebanon, Sasoun (Turkey) born David Yeretsian relocated to L.A. with his family. Sasoun Bakery is now a multi-location mainstay with an array of savory discs, torpedos and triangles. Large cheese boerek has red pepper kick. Paper-thin lahmajun, za’atar coated maneishe, and flaky, pull-apart tahini bread are also satisfying.

Vlad and his family expanded this fall from Yerevan, where they’ve run Tun Lahmajo since 2008. Flame-licked ovens now produce ground beef lahmajo (with or without mozzarella cheese) featuring cracker-thin crusts and squeezable lemons in Burbank.

Nissrine Chiha and husband Hassan opened Zaatar N More in 2022. They sell 17 10-inch Lebanese mannaish (flatbreads). Stuffed Zaatar & Cheese tempers the topside seed and spice mix with mozzarella. Lahme Ajeen is the name for lahmajun in Lebanon.

I first covered Zhengyalov Hatz for Eater LA in 2019. The namesake Artsakh specialty from Jana Vallianos and son-in-law Vresh Osipian combines 15 greens and herbs in a soft flatbread (butter optional). The family has 3 other branches in Yerevan and Moscow.