New York Chicken & Gyro is taking “A Taste of New York for You Angels” — the restaurant’s tagline — to 961 East Green Street in Pasadena. The new location will be the fourth for the family-owned chain, including its Canoga Park flagship, a food court stall in West L.A. and a soon-to-be-open outpost in Venice.
For Moe Mehirdel, who owns and operates New York Chicken alongside his father and brothers Sam and Hafiz, setting up shop in Pasadena was a no-brainer. He and his family have been eyeing Pasadena since they began scouting for a location for their first outpost of the halal Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant, which opened in Canoga Park in 2017.
“Pasadena was always Number 1 for us, but we could never find our spot,” Mehirdel explained. When a leasing opportunity near Green Street and Lake Avenue came up, he wandered over to check it out.
“The area is just so beautiful,” he said. “I saw how many people were walking around Lake Avenue and I knew this was our spot.”
Mehirdel is still early in the process of turning the 1,500-square-foot space into New York Chicken’s new home, but already he has a vision for the look and feel. Inspired by his family’s hometown of New York, he and his design team plan to transform the space they way they did the restaurant’s Canoga Park location, where everything from the menus to the walls have a classic New York metro train station theme.
“We want our customers to feel like they’re walking in a New York City borough, like a neighborhood in Queens or Brooklyn,” Mehirdel explained. “Even before they order, we want them to feel like this is the real deal.”
One thing that will stay the same is the emphasis on food, service and affordability. The Mehirdel family moved from New York with the mission of wowing Los Angeles with their flavorful falafels and gyros. No matter how many restaurants the company opens, that isn’t going to change.
“We have a tunnel vision when it comes to service and when it comes to prices,” Mehirdel said. “Nobody serves food like us.”
New York Chicken’s Pasadena location will likely open January 2022. Its Venice location is slated to open in late September.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Mehirdel and Hafiz as “Mehridel” and “Hamiz”. Additionally, the total square footage is 1,500 square feet, not 1,250 square feet as originally published.
