The heady aroma of zira, the Uzbek word for cumin, perfumes nearly every dish served at Zira Uzbek Kitchen , including its grilled meats , tender dumplings, and signature plov (rice pilaf). The new restaurant dedicated to Central Asia’s foodways and cultures opens Friday, November 15, 2024, at 7422 Melrose Avenue in the former space of kosher Mediterranean restaurant Ta’eem Grill on the border of West Hollywood. The restaurant joins a handful of Southland establishments specializing in Uzbek cooking, including longtime Valley Village stalwart Tashkent Produce , Kashtan in Hollywood , Tustin’s Samarkand Grill , and the more recent mobile operation Lazzat .
Zira’s owner Azim Rahmatov immigrated from Bukhara, Uzbekistan to Los Angeles in 2001 and has long dreamed of opening a restaurant. As a 21-year-old newcomer to the U.S.
, Rahmatov earned a degree in hospitality management from Cal Poly Pomona while working his way up from dishwasher to manager at the now-closed Restaurant Uzbekistan on Sunset and La Brea. Rahmatov spent decades working behind the scenes in luxury hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey and Baccarat Hotel just south of Central Park in New York City, before deciding to branch out on his own, prompted, in part, by the precariousness of employment and life that the pandemic magnified. “I’ve always wanted to open my own restaurant,” he says.
“The pandemic reassured me that I needed to open my own business.” Together with his wife, G.