Meet Tal Zaiet | Restaurant Owner & Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tal Zaiet and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tal, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Having a proper work-life balance truly does feel impossible at times. For the first couple of years after I opened Mazal, it was all work and no life. A balance didn’t exist. I’ll always look back at those days with a sense of genuine disappointment in many ways that I couldn’t figure out how to manage both appropriately.

As much as I’m proud of my business and what I’ve managed to accomplish in a handful of years, it really did come with the expensive cost of my personal life. The most important relationships of my life struggled immensely – to the point of failure and irreparability in some.

It was a wake up call and only a very recent revelation – around Summer 2023, actually. I realized that investing my whole life in my restaurant cost me the joy of having other aspects of my life prioritized. I now take much more of a back seat in my own business than I did in the first few years, and rely much more on my staff to wear some of the load. I’ve begun to put an emphasis on living a more fulfilled, well-rounded life. It’s hard to say at this point if it’s paid off, to be completely honest. I’ve almost resigned to the fact that this is just the struggle of owning and operating a business that requires so much hands-on attention.

Mentally it’s a challenge to disconnect from something that I invested everything into, but it’s a never ending learning process and one that I think is of paramount importance and absolutely necessary for all business owners to consider. I’ve taken this as part of the experience as growing as a leader of a business. There’s some push and pull with how much you can really invest in your business and conversely in your private life, and it’s always about finding a balance. A genuine cliche, but one that I try to remind myself of daily. I really have started to believe lately though that you only have one life, might as well try to really enjoy every aspect of it.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I think the thing that sets apart my restaurant from others is the fact that we really do have a team that all loves each other. I know it’s a common trope for any company to say “we’re all one big happy family”, but I really do feel that way. I look forward to when my staff shows up to work every day because I really do like being around them. And although we bicker and get into all sorts of arguments about anything and everything, it’s done from a place of love and mutual respect for each other. I really do feel that in some holistic, borderline spiritual way, that energy radiates throughout the restaurant. I think that people can sense that when they come in.

Getting to where I am today business-wise was definitely not easy at all. I’d say it was the most challenging work endeavor I’ve ever accomplished. Truly what got me through it was the fact that I’m building this restaurant and working at this project for nobody but myself. The more I put into it, the more I’ll get out of it. That was the single most intense motivating factor. There were many times throughout the whole 2-3 process before opening that I thought I’d never actually reach the finish line. That it was an endless plight with no literal end in sight. I felt like a donkey climbing uphill with a carrot at the end of my stick that I’d never actually reach but one day I managed to get there. And it really was the most accomplished I’d ever felt.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh this is a fun question! Assuming the weather’s nice, we’d first have to make time for a beach trip – Hermosa’s my favorite. We’d stop off at Brother’s Burritos for fuel for the day, then get lunch at the Green Store. Make our way back up the 405 to the 105 to the 110 (giving them a real LA experience getting stuck in traffic). Have an afternoon bite at Millie’s Cafe in Silver Lake. Maybe walk up and down Sunset a bit to work it off. Then head to Highland Park Brewery for a happy hour beer. Mosey on over to LA State Historic Park to watch the sunset and play with some dogs, then walk on back to Lincoln Heights to kick it at Mazal for dinner. You won’t get much more of a full day than that!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The biggest shoutout must be to my parents, Hanni & Davis. I’ve been learning the ropes on how to own and manage a business from them for as long as I could remember. My parents own their own Hardwood Flooring business, Z Best Hardwood, and I’ve been intentionally under their tutelage since I was a child. They’ve taught me about grit, determination, and hard work that must be done when you’re in charge. Leading by example is something that they always do, and absolutely a professional trait that’s been passed down to me. For better or worse, we lean on each other for guidance at this point, and my restaurant has truly become a family affair as a result. Off the heels of the work-life balance discussion, they’ve thankfully been there to help cover me if I ever need time off for myself, or want to get away and take a much needed break. Their support in every sense of the word is really one of the foundational reasons why Mazal is able to walk on its own these days.

Website: www.mazal.la

Instagram: @mazal.la

Image Credits
Simi Malik