Laughter and excitement filled the newly remodeled dining room of Delphi Greek Restaurant and Bar as the restaurant celebrated its 40th anniversary April 5.

Located on Westwood Boulevard, Delphi Greek is a family-owned location that has been serving Greek and Mediterranean cuisine for the last 40 years. After remodeling its dining room, Delphi Greek held a reopening ceremony for its 40th anniversary.

The event included tastings, speeches from local officials, and celebrations from friends, family and frequent customers.

Owner Roozbeh Farahanipour and his family said they became the restaurant’s owners 19 years ago.

“This is a treasure for the community, and we are celebrating 40 years serving authentic Greek food to our community,” Farahanipour said. “During the COVID (pandemic), we didn’t close even one day, and we served 94,500 individual meals.”

Farahanipour settled his family in Westwood after immigrating to the United States to seek political asylum, and since then, he has been devoted to serving his community, he said. He added that he is committed to supporting the neighborhood that has supported him and his family by residing, running three restaurants and sending his children to schools in Westwood.

Farahanipour said he takes pride in seeing both the Greek community and the UCLA community enjoy his food, along with the fact that Delphi Greek is one of the few off-campus restaurants that accept BruinCard funds as payment.

“(I’ve) become a family member with the entire community, and the community members (are) like my extended family,” Farahanipour said. “I don’t have anyone. I am an immigrant here, so they are like my family now.”

Katy Yaroslavsky, the Los Angeles City Council member who represents UCLA, said it is important – both for the Westwood community and ahead of the 2028 LA Olympics – for establishments such as Delphi Greek to continue to stay open as businesses are constantly changing.

“Westwood’s an amazing community,” Yaroslavsky said. “It’s a very diverse community, both in terms of the fact that you have a huge student body and faculty and staff, and people come from all over the world to go to school here. And then you have the community that’s, in some cases, lived here for generations.”

In Delphi Greek’s 40 years of operation, the restaurant has seen a number of regular customers.

Billy Riback said he has been a frequent customer at Delphi Greek for at least 25 years and has seen the restaurant change hands but still stay consistent when it comes to customer service and quality of food.

“You always feel important when you’re here,” Riback said. “I live close. It’s a perfect place to come. He stays open late. It’s convenient for me, … and I will continue to come.”

Riback also said that a place like Delphi Greek gives people a sense of optimism that any restaurant can be open for so long, do well and continue to do good for the community.

“You do feel a little bit like part of the family, like you’re having a nice home-cooked meal that you happen to pay for,” he added.

Over the last 19 years, Farahanipour said he has been devoted to keeping the standards of Delphi Greek high to serve the community he considers family.

“We’re all in this together,” Riback said. “We have to be, right? Too hard a planet to not get along, and so he’s (Farahanipour has) demonstrated that he can do that. And I think people take their lead from him – I really do believe that.”