BROTHERS SPARK VALLEY TASTE REVOLUTION PERSIAN RESTAURANT OFFERS SLEEK, CHIC DINING.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

SAUGUS - Naima, the only full-service Persian restaurant in the Santa Clarita Valley, occupies a chic dining room decorated with sparse canvases of Farsi calligraphy.

It's a space that's likely more at home in Westwood than a Saugus strip mall. But co-owner Alexander Norouzi, who opened the Persian and Mediterranean restaurant about three months ago, is trying to do something different.

``All the other Persian restaurants, it's like it's stuck in the '70s, just before the revolution,'' said Norouzi, 28. ``Sometimes, less is more. It's not a revolution - it's evolution.''

The presentation is sleek. Grilled meats and saffron-scented basmati rice arrive in square dishes, and such traditional dips as the garlic-infused hummus and mat-o-khiar - a mint-flavored yogurt and cucumber mixture - rest on wedges of white china.

Norouzi and his brother Aria never thought they would end up restaurant owners in the United States. In fact, they're a long way from Hamburg, Germany, where they were born and raised after their parents fled Iran in the 1970s during the Islamic Revolution.

Aria, 27, ran a disco, while Alexander was trying to break into the music business after finishing studies in London.

``I wanted to come to the U.S. for one reason - it was the music industry,'' Alexander said. ``I came here to visit L.A. and was planning to move to New York.''

But their cousin Shawn Ahrabi, who has a catering business in Los Angeles, had other ideas.

``Do you have some money left over and some time?'' said Alexander, recalling his cousin's words. ``Bring some time and money with you here.''

The two brothers conceived the concept - a contemporary eatery with traditional food - while Ahrabi sorted the logistics of finding a chef and a location.

``He did some research and found a lot of Persians here, and there is no Persian restaurant,'' Alexander said.

The partners took over a defunct Domino's Pizza at Bouquet Canyon and Seco Canyon roads, and invested about $200,000 into their budding enterprise. They named the restaurant ``Naima,'' in memory of Ahrabi's wife, who died in a car accident about three years ago.

She had always nagged her husband about opening a Persian restaurant, Alexander recalled.

``He wanted to call it Santa Clarita Persian or something,'' he said. ``So I said, why don't we call it Naima? There were tears in his eye.''

Her photo sits by the cash register.

The brothers, who recently moved to Valencia, are getting used to life in this quiet corner of California.

``I love the sunlight,'' Alexander said. ``Imagine the (wet) weather last month: it's like that for nine, 10 months a year in Hamburg.''

``I can go to the beach or go to the desert,'' Aria said. ``I'm still free. It's my chance to do something.''

Their Farsi also is getting a workout. Alexander said he rarely spoke the tongue outside his family.

``It was a surprising shock,'' he said. ``In Hamburg, the Persian community is not big.''

And the brothers haven't given up on music. They want to build Naima into a nightspot to headline a sound that Alexander described as ``Persian-meets-Jill Scott.''

``It could be a soundtrack from the restaurant,'' he said.

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Aria Norouzi, left, and his brother Alexander, right, stand with chef Ali Nikijan at Saugus eatery Naima, the only full-service Persian restaurant in the Santa Clarita Valley.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer