Sipan Bakery

ARMENIA 🇦🇲

COVID-19 UPDATE: There are two tables for dine-in service, most business is pickup and takeout.

📍1250 W. Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale, Verdugos.

For such a small village, Sipan seems to be the namesake of a lot of markets and other businesses around town. Especially in Glendale, the name is seen on a butcher shop, a liquor store, and this bakery on Glenoaks Blvd. which used to have a second location in Northridge. But if you look for this word outside of the current internationally recognized borders of Armenia you find a much more likely answer: Mount Sipan, just north of Lake Van in what is now Turkey but still remains the heart of the Armenian Highlands to many.

The beautiful, often snow-capped peak is the subject of much Armenian art from over a century ago and for good reason. Views from across the lake and up the slopes of the rocky peak are naturally spectacular and seemingly made in the mind of whomever was Lake Van's Bob Ross equivalent. Back to Glendale, the art made inside this family-run bakery comes from the oven, with plenty of options for lahmajune, maneishe, and beorek.

If you have read the pages of Eat the World Los Angeles for long, you will be well-versed in the world's bakers also using their skills to provide their communities (and all Angelenos) with the styles of pizzas beloved back home. The Armenian-style pizza here is not so different than those enjoyed in Iran, which also drops the marinara or any other sauce in favor of more cheese.

Thankfully (sorry Persians!) they do not insist on using ranch dressing and ketchup on their pies, Sipan instead passes out a healthy amount of their homemade spicy chipotle sauce. This creamy, nutty sauce is the ultimate LA fusion and surprisingly addictive. It definitely lived up to its praise and was used to the last drop on the large chicken shawarma pizza ($15.55, above).

Speaking of particularly Los Angeles fusions, there may be no more obvious one than Armenian tacos, which Sipan Bakery makes using round "tortillas" made from their thin lavash. Vegetarians will be very happy with the falafel taco, while other options include beef and chicken shawarma and lahmajune. No matter which you order, use plenty of the chipotle salsa.

For this meal it was the more traditional items that were desired to pair with pizza, so a beef shawarma plate ($16.09, above) was ordered. This comes with a few (rectangular) sheets of lavash, a bed of crispy seasoned fries, tahini, pickles, and a side of hummus. The dish has exactly zero weak parts and hit all the notes that were hoped for when it arrived.

A small side of tabouleh salad ($8.27, above) is a great way to get some greens on the table, a fresh and crisp slap in the face with just the right amount of lemon juice. A small order is by no means small and was plenty to share between this table of four. Recommended.

While marinara is not on the pizzas and would probably not combine so well with shawarma anyways, they save it for orders of mante, available cooked or frozen in various sized trays. Frozen versions allow you to take the dumplings home to be heated up when desired and come with heating instructions by the chef and sides of both the marinara and a garlicky yogurt sauce to be put on top after baking.

A large 9" mante tray ($11.80, above and below) is basically a meal for two. Small beef balls are wrapped and concealed in a canoe-shaped boat and left open faced. When they are cooking, the fats from the meat start to boil out of the canoes and work to brown the edges of wrappers.

While it would certainly be enjoyable without anything on top, part of the reason Armenians eat mante is to consume a ridiculous amount of the garlic-infused yogurt, so be generous with that and if possible cancel your plans for later if good breath is going to be necessary.

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