Photograph by Paul Myers
Saied Mehranfar, who just reopened Saratoga International Market and Deli at 14445 Big Basin Way, tends the cash register. The market specializes in Mediterranean foods.
Émigré from Iran reopens store that has a Mediterranean flavor
By Rebecca Ray
After having been closed for almost a year, Saratoga International Market and Deli is selling halal meat, poultry and kabobs to Saratogans once again.
Although owner Saied Mehranfar bought the 2,700-square-foot location at 14445 Big Basin Way two years ago, Mehranfar said the manager he hired didn't devote enough time to running the business, so it closed. Mehranfar made himself the manager and reopened the store Aug. 20.
Mehranfar sells Mediterranean foods, such as Indian, Persian, Greek, kosher Jewish and halal, or lawful, Muslim foods. Customers can purchase fesenjoon, or stew, made of pomegranate juice, walnut and Thai chicken. The stew is usually eaten with basmati rice, which looks like white rice, but is bigger and fluffier.
Customers can buy pre-packaged or fresh food from Mehranfar and can either take it home or eat it on a patio outside the store.
Mehranfar owns and supervises other businesses, Rose International Gourmet Market in Mountain View--and Piccolo's Restaurant, Hozkhouneh Persian Traditional Cuisine, Mirage Banquet Room and SNJ Catering in Los Altos. He opened another business in downtown Saratoga because his customers told him he would be successful there.
Mehranfar, who emigrated from Iran in 1984, has been in the food service business since 1985. He was one of many Iranians to leave the country after Muslims revolted against Shah Reza Pahlavi's government in 1979, and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim religious leader, took over.
Mehranfar came to the United States to be closer to his relatives, all of whom live here, he said.
Mehranfar learned how to run a food service business by studying how various fast-food chains in the United States operated. Unlike fast food, Mediterranean food can take hours to prepare--it takes six hours to make khoresh gourmeh sabzi, or gourmet vegetable soup, which has parsley, vinegar, leaks, pinto beans and dry lemons, Mehranfar said. But his knowledge of fast-food operations led him to open his first Mediterranean food market, Rose International, which now exists at a 5,000-square-foot location on Castro Street in Mountain View.
After Mehranfar opened Rose International, he opened Healthy Choice, a Mediterranean buffet, in Palo Alto. After selling Healthy Choice in 1999, he opened Piccolo's, a Mediterranean food restaurant, on El Camino Real in Los Altos. The Piccolo's building on El Camino Real also houses Hozkhouneh Persian Traditional Cuisine, Mirage Banquet Room and the office of SNJ Catering, a business he runs with his brothers. His brothers also work as chefs at his restaurants. Mehranfar has been in the catering business for 10 years.
After working 14 hours a day, one would think Mehranfar would want nothing to do with food. Instead, he experiments with food in his large kitchen at his home in Milpitas, where he has installed a commercial oven and grill.
Mehranfar asks his co-workers and customers to try his new recipes. If they like them, he sells them at his stores.
"[Cooking] is like a vacation for me," Mehranfar said.
Mehranfar added that one of his biggest challenges was continually introducing new products so that customers wouldn't get tired of the same food. At his new deli and market in Saratoga, he sells five types of zucchini.
Although Mehranfar said that the economic downturn has affected him just as it has affected others, he said it didn't worry him much and that he focused on maintaining the quality of his food and service.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
