From a backyard burrito pop-up in late 2023 to two locations as of 2026, Sobuneh’s founders Omeed Minoofar, Ryan Elyahouzadeh and Ethan Banyan, have built more than a breakfast burrito spot. Blending familiar flavors with Persian hospitality, they’ve focused on creating a space where people feel welcomed, connected and at home — an experience that stays with you long after the meal.
Minoofar sat down with BruinLife’s Reem Almarei to talk about their journey, the community they’ve built and the kind of experience they want people to leave with.
BruinLife: Can you start off by telling me a bit about yourself and your cofounders and how you started?
Omeed Minoofar: I was pursuing graduate school after my UCLA undergrad, where I majored in history. Ryan was in culinary school and Ethan worked in real estate. As Persians, we’re all connected a little bit, so we knew each other growing up, but during college we got much closer and started cooking together. We were always the ones cooking for Super Bowls at home. Ethan was usually smoking meat — he was the pit master — and Ryan handled the culinary side to a fine point. During COVID, I was experimenting with sauces. Over time, we got closer and started going to Korean barbecues almost every month. That was our ritual. Eventually, those hangouts turned into conversations about food and ideas. In August 2023, Ethan called us and that’s when we came up with the idea of doing a pop-up.
BL: What inspired you to start your first pop up?
OM: There are a lot of great breakfast burritos across Los Angeles, but there wasn’t much on the Westside, so we said, why don’t we bring something together here? We started doing pop-ups once a week on Sundays with preorders through Instagram and assigned time slots. In the beginning, it was pretty funny — we were serving two to three people every 15-minute increment and it felt very chaotic because it was just us. Ryan and I were making the burritos, and Ethan was running expo and cooking eggs. We were going through about one case of eggs a day, maybe around 180 eggs. Now we go through roughly 25 cases a week, which is close to 4,000 eggs.
BL: What about the Persian influence in the food?
OM: There’s not much of a Persian influence on the ingredients for the food, but more so within the drinks. Our drinks are Persian inspired, with flavors that we had grown up with. More so, it’s about hospitality and that was shown in one of the funniest interactions I remember. One of our first influencers who came by was Daniel Wargo from “Forking Around TV.” He came by while a football game was on, and it was sort of just by second nature that he sat down with us. Ryan’s mom would always help out; she’d make tea and offer people snacks and stuff like that. So the way we aim to translate this into the food and into our hospitality is through how we do things in our homes. That’s what we say — it’s not just a café, it’s a taste of home.
BL: From the pop-ups to the Colony to West Hollywood, how has community and growth played out?
OM: When we moved into The Colony, we were still doing pre-orders and that involved us going one-on-one with people on Instagram and asking, how was the food? How are you? It’s good to see you again. I think that was the tipping point where it started to feel like a real community. Growing up on the East Coast, I was used to mom and pop diners where owners would check up on you, and that’s how we naturally started operating. We began noticing people’s patterns — whether they wanted extra sauce or their burrito extra crispy. Those small things help create a sense of community because people want to be heard and seen, and that’s what we aim to do.
BL: Why do people keep coming back?
OM: A lot of places feel transactional — you get your food and you leave. That’s the complete opposite of what we want to do. No matter how big we get, we want to stay involved, greet people, we want people to feel like they can come here, sit and feel like we’re here for them. We try to do the best we can in every possible way — whether it’s how we wrap the burritos, how we take customer feedback or how ordering happens. I think people catch on to that. I think hospitality is what brings people back. If you DM us on Instagram and we get back to you, it’s us — you’re talking to me, Ethan or Ryan. It’s very genuine. A lot of places in LA are fast-casual — you’re in and out — and that works for them. Everyone has their place in this ecosystem of restaurants, but for us, it’s the sense of community that has developed and continues to grow.
BL: What were some of your most memorable or stand out moments working as a team?
OM: I think one of the standout moments was when we were testing our first signature burrito, ground beef and turkey and there’s a photo of us all eating it and Ethan and I are pointing at Ryan because he had the breakthrough idea. On the other hand, one of the most memorable hard moments was spilling a huge bucket of honey chipotle sauce all over the floor during prep and just staring at each other outside, questioning life. We had lost money in the first few months because we weren’t tracking food or labor costs and that forced us to build systems to get better.
BL: Being both a UCLA alum and a restaurant owner what advice do you have for people entering the food and drink industry, and what advice do you have for Bruins?
OM: In terms of advice, especially in the restaurant industry, you genuinely have to believe in it. It’s a tough business, especially in California, but belief, energy and sticking through doubt matters. For UCLA students, talk to people, build community and network. UCLA really reinforced that for me.
