Healthy eats and Middle Eastern culture meld into one at a Santa Monica eatery. Restaurant owner Marjan Sarshar ties her two passions together with her own creation – Kreation Kafé.

Kreation Kafé in Santa Monica

“In Iran people ate fried meats and oily foods and didn’t get sick,” Iranian born Sarshar said. “But here that is not the case because we don’t know what to eat, when to eat, how to eat or what we are eating.” 

Sarshar vowed to change that with Kreation Kafé. 

At 17, she moved to Los Angeles with her family to escape the revolution. Sarshar’s life in Iran was centralized around family and food. 

Vegetables were grown locally and meat came fresh from a neighborhood butcher. She lived by her grandmother’s home-cooked meals and survived off of natural remedies like torshee – an Iranian vinegar drink to aid digestion. Additives were unheard-of and preservatives were non-existent.  

26 years later, Sarshar brought this taste of Iranian culture to Santa Monica – literally.

“I don’t look at this like a business,” Sarshar said. “The whole idea for me was to create a very organic way of living.” 

And that is exactly what she did. Sarshar has lived in Santa Monica for over 20 years.  She is the mother of two girls, 12 and 13, who attend Lincoln Middle School. 

The Santa Monica community is a key element in her life. She walks her children to school and bikes herself to work. She hires local employees and buys products from local farmers. 

After divorcing in 2005, Sarshar enrolled in a Tony Robbins leadership course at Pepperdine University. It was then that the idea for Kreation Kafé came into fruition. In Sept. 2006, she opened the Montana Ave. eatery. 

“I was newly divorced and my daughters were old enough to be in school,” Sarshar said. “I wanted to do something that would help my community, but give me fulfillment at the same time.” 

Kreation Kafé was originally an Italian restaurant. Sarshar purchased the eatery and managed it for two months to gain experience in the culinary industry. Less than a year later, the traditional neighborhood pizzeria was revamped into Kreation Kafé.

Sarshar’s restaurant is one of modification not reinvention. Kreation Kafé combines the simplistic and natural lifestyle she lived in Iran with Santa Monica’s eco-friendly, organic beach-culture. The chairs in Kreation Kafé are from the original restaurant and the walls are flanked with wood salvaged from fruit bins. 

But the notion of modification is not just limited to the décor. Sarshar made sure Kreation Kafé qualified as one of Santa Monica’s Certified Green Businesses. The consultants replaced bleach with eco-friendly cleaning agents and reduced the restaurant’s electrical bill by $300 by switching to fluorescent light bulbs. 

Her concept of improving what was extends to the restaurant’s menu as well. 

“All of my recipes are from hundreds of years ago,” Sarshar said. “But I changed some ingredients to add health benefits and a contemporary flare.” 

Sarshar uses phytonutrient-filled black rice instead of traditional white basmati rice. Her water is infused with detoxifying chlorophyll drops. And walnut oil trumps olive oil because of its high Omega-3 essential fatty acid content.  

“There hasn’t been a day that we opened where someone doesn’t ask me to expand our business,” Sarshar said.   

Sarshar is in the process of expanding her business endeavors. She opened another Kreation Kafé in Beverly Hills this past January. 

The new location homes a juice bar with over 20 organic cold-pressed juices. The store also offers customized juice “Kleanses” for those who want to rid their bodies of toxins and start anew along with delivery and pick-up services.

Sarshar still manages to have fun with her work despite the demands of running two locations.  

“It was such a riot coming up with juice names for the menu,” Sarshar said. “It never gets old hearing a loyal customer order a ‘Brain’ for her husband every Saturday morning.” 

It can be said that out of Sarshar’s divorce came marriage. A marriage uniting the simplicity of old world Iranian ways and Southern California's health consciousness.

She is a pioneer who has tied the traditional ways of nature and simplicity in eating with the chic and trendy ways of Los Angeles. 

The concept of work has taken on a new meaning for Sarshar.  To run her business, all she has to do is follow her passion.  

“If you find something you love, you never have to work again,” Sarshar said.