After fire, Mazra reopens in Redwood City

Specializing in all-halal Eastern Mediterranean food with traditional family recipes, Mazra has become a staple in the Redwood City community, despite only being open for two months prior to the fire.

“A lot of people at neighboring restaurants, they felt like there was a different vibe to the street because it wasn’t as packed,” Makableh said. “We usually have a line on weekends that would stretch all the way down the street. It feels like we really do belong, even though we’ve only been here for two months.” 

With updated tiling and a reorganization of the restaurant’s staple 18-foot woodfire grill — which is the largest in the state, Makableh said — Mazra’s essence remains the same. 

The open space bustles with customers, many of whom go up to Makableh to say ‘hi’ and the purple and green accented colors throughout remain bright.  

“Getting customers to come in and seeing their faces again has been great,” Makableh said. “It’s a lot of regulars, a lot of people who have been waiting. The support and community feel we got, once the fire happened, was unreal.” 

Since the fire, Makableh said city officials have consistently shown up, “letting us see their face to know they really support us.” He said the three-month turnaround since the fire — most of which was going through new permitting process — is “unheard of” and he and his brother, and co-owner, were expecting to be out of commission much longer.

The fire required a bit of upgrading to the interior walls lining the hallway toward the back garden patio, now featuring green subway tiles and a purple floral wallpaper. The kitchen has also been updated and reorganized to be safer. 

Any sign of damage is absent, save for a part of the wall above the hallway where firefighters had to break through to access the fire. The unpainted square patch will remain primer-white to serve as a reminder of what the restaurant has already gone through. 

“That little patch you see up there, it keeps me humble,” said Nikki Abbasi, a front of house worker who was there when the location first opened in April. “You never know what might happen.” 

Makableh said that although the experience was something they never would have wanted, he looks at the time off as a chance to have reassessed their approach to the business. Though he and his brother have nearly five years of experience from Mazra’s original location, he said they’re always learning. 

“I think the biggest takeaway from all of this ultimately, my brother and I got an opportunity to see what the restaurant looked like for two months,” he said. “And once we closed, it really allowed us to actually develop a system that we didn’t really have prior.”

Coming back with an improved sense of running the restaurant was well complemented by a committed staff, who all, but one, returned. 

“Honestly, the whole team here is so much more than just a team,” Abbasi said. “They’re literally family here, cousins, uncles. It wasn’t even a question to stick around, it’s just a community. We really care about this restaurant.”

Though Juliana Ghishan is new to the front of house staff, she said the familial aspect is already evident in the short time she has worked since the restaurant’s reopening. 

“I can tell that everyone here is like a huge family,” Ghishan said. “It’s been above and beyond what I would have ever thought.” 

Mazra opened its second location at 2021 Broadway in April, an expansion after the booming success of its original San Bruno location. The first location opened in March 2020 and quickly earned a top-100 Yelp ranking, and is currently under construction for renovation purposes. 

The Redwood City location reopened Tuesday, Sept. 10, and after three months away, the staff is excited to be back together and serve good food. 

“After three months of not being here, it felt very weird, but, by hour two, we were back to the swing of things,” Abbasi said. “It’s definitely about the food, but the environment too. It’s something special here.”