54 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} in 2025—Mazra is going stronger than ever. “I’m always telling Jordan that I can’t believe our success,” Saif says. “We’re at about 80 percent of where I want our food to be. You always want things to be better.” Mazra got its start after Jordan and Saif’s father decided to close his small neighborhood grocery store in San Bruno. Saif convinced his dad to let him try opening a restaurant in the space. As a young adult, he had spent three years in Australia working for an uncle and Saif missed the barbecue culture there. “They barbecue a lot in Australia and you learn a lot about it,” he shares. “We use the charcoal grill at the restaurant because the char is something you can’t get from a gas grill. I hate when you can’t taste the char. It’s so simple and so good.” For brothers Saif and Jordan Makableh, the success of Mazra, their wildly popular fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant, has been quite the surprise. After being ranked No. 2 on Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. in 2021, less than a year after opening, the duo had no idea what they were in for. “We were panicking because we were so busy,” Saif remembers. “The line would wrap around the building and we were still getting good reviews!” Despite Mazra’s popularity, he still saw room for improvement. “We thought our chances of surviving were low,” Saif admitted. But after four years and a move to a larger space in Redwood City earlier this year—the original San Bruno location is undergoing major renovations and set to reopen
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