Flavors of Westwood: UCLA-adjacent restaurants show connection to students, alumni

The Bruin looks into a few of the culinary attractions of Westwood to learn more about the people behind them, diving into three tried-and-true restaurants and one newcomer to the Westwood dining scene.

 

Honeymade

Perched on a stool in front of a window across from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Jeff Selwyn looks up to watch the traffic go by.

Selwyn is the owner of Honeymade Sweet and Savory, a restaurant that opened last month in Westwood Village.

“I like to create and I think you can do a lot of that with food,“ Selwyn said with a soft South African accent.

When he was younger, Selwyn served in the South African Army.

“After the army, I had to decide what I was going to do,” Selwyn said. “I decided to go into the food business.”A chef in the officer’s mess taught him how to cook.

After leaving the army, Selwyn studied hotel management at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, where his emphasis was on desserts and pastries.

Selwyn said some of his most intriguing dishes at Honeymade were inspired by this training, such as his signature sweet and savory waffle sandwiches, the Kimchi Tuna Waffle and the Tangerine Chicken Waffle.

“I wanted to put another twist to (desserts) and create something else that no one else is doing,” Selwyn said.

Selwyn said he plans on opening another Honeymade in Las Vegas.

 

Saffron & Rose Ice Cream

Fred Papen’s grandfather moved from Iran to Los Angeles in the 1970s, bringing not only his wife and two children, but also a penchant for making Persian ice cream.

After reaching Los Angeles, Papen’s grandfather opened an ice cream shop similar to the one he ran in Iran. He named his shop after his two most popular flavors, saffron and rose.

Thirty years later, Papen and his uncle run the store and serve more than 50 different flavors of ice cream including lavender, pumpkin, pistachio and cantaloupe.

Papen said he recalls his grandfather letting him run the register for customers and eat all the ice cream and candy that he could when he was younger.

“He made me feel like I owned (the shop) for the ten minutes I was there, even though I was only eight years old,” Papen said.

When Papen grew older, he started taking a more active role in the family business. He started by delivering tubs of ice cream to retail outlets in Southern California and now plays a managerial role in the operation.

Papen said, through the years, he has also helped invent some of their most popular flavors, such as pumpkin pie, nutella and peanut butter.

Papen said that what sets Persian ice cream apart from American ice cream is that they use whole milk rather than powdered milk.

“If you take a spoon and pull it from a cup, it would stretch like melted cheese stretches,” Papen said. “That’s what sets us apart from other ice cream shops … We want to provide the community a different type of ice cream that you can’t find anywhere.”

 

Angelino’s Cafe

Archie Zanali still remembers his first customer, Mike. Even after 11 years, he remembers that Mike’s favorite dish is the penne marinara and that Mike’s wife enjoys ravioli.

When Mike and his wife come to visit Los Angeles from Fresno, Calif., they always stop by Angelino’s Cafe for a meal.

Mike is not the only UCLA alumnus who stops by Angelino’s Cafe when he is in town, said Zanali, the owner of the restaurant.

When old customers return to Angelino’s Cafe for a meal, Zanali said they always come and meet him.

“They say ‘Hi Archie, how are you? Do you remember me?’” Zanali said with a smile. “Of course I remember them. I remember all of them. I (even) know which food to make (for them).”

Zanali said his family extends past his wife and two children – he treats all of the students who stop by for a meal as his children too and enjoys talking to them about their classes, their lives and, most importantly, food.

Zanali doesn’t just talk to, but also personally cooks for his patrons, which he says is a key point.If someone else makes it, he said, the food will taste different.

Zanali has plans to keep this authentic flavor past his time at the restaurant. He said his son will use the same sauce to cook the pasta even after he retires.

“When my son takes over the business, he will use the same sauce,” Zanali said. “It is important. If I give the sauce to someone else to make, the customer will come over and say this sauce I eat is not like (it was) before, it’s different.”

 

Fat Sal’s

Salvatore Capek used to build restaurants. Three years ago, he started building sandwiches.

Capek and his business partners, originally from New York, opened Fat Sal’s Deli in an attempt to bring “fat sandwiches” to the West Coast, Capek said. “Fat sandwiches” combine a myriad of ingredients, such as meat, cheese, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, eggs and condiments, all in one sandwich.

“We try to combine everything that’s tasty and stuff it into one ridiculous, delicious sandwich,” Capek said.

Capek said he grew up eating sandwiches like this all his life, but he would make them himself.

Capek added onion rings to his beef sandwiches to create what is akin to the Fat Sal currently on the menu, and chicken parmesan to cold cut sandwiches to create the Fat Anthony, another popular sandwich on the menu.

Most of the customers at Fat Sal’s are students, faculty and staff from UCLA and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Capek said.

“If you’re a doctor or nurse or x-ray technician (working the night shift), your lunch is at midnight,” Capek said. “People come in at around midnight and eat lunch.”

Fat Sal’s Deli has opened two other branches, in San Diego and Hollywood, this year.

Capek said students from UCLA who have graduated come and eat at Fat Sal’s when they come back to visit or go to one of the other locations.

“I was working at the San Diego store this past memorial day weekend. One (UCLA alum) came and asked, ‘Do you guys make the fat cordon blue down here?'” Capek said. “He was so excited that we did because it wasn’t on the menu here.”

Other customers have left their own mark on the menu. One of the sandwiches, the Fat Jaime, has been named by the only person to have eaten the “Big Fat Fatty” sandwich, a 27 inch sub that weighs 10 pounds.

But Capek said the best part is seeing people enjoy your food.

“We have a passion for the food there. We are foodies – we love food, we love watching people enjoy our food.”