VALLEY GLEN, Calif. — You might drive by Lusy’s Mediterranean Café and Grill and take it for just another restaurant in one of the San Fernando Valley’s unremarkable strip malls. But Lusy’s is remarkable. And so is its proprietor, and not just because she has a quirky spelling of a common first name.

“It’s ‘Lusy’ with an ‘S,’” said owner, Lucik Gradzhyan.

When she immigrated to the United States, Gradzhyan made an honest mistake when she went through customs.

“Instead of a ‘C,’ I wrote an ‘S,’” explains Gradzhyan.

Thirty years later that spelling error would actually help promote a very successful restaurant business.

“I never thought I would have a restaurant, but I always dreamed about it,” said Grahzhyan.

Thirty years ago, it was an impossible dream.  After a devastating earthquake, Gradzhyan and her widowed father fled Armenia. She arrived with nothing but her homespun talent for cooking. She took a job in Los Angeles’ jewelry district where she often brought homemade meals to her coworkers.

“Everyone said, ‘Oh why don’t you open a restaurant?” said Gradzhyan, putting a kabob on the grill in the restaurant’s kitchen. “I was like, ‘I don’t know!’”

She knew nothing about running a business and never went to culinary school.

“No. My grandmother’s school was the best,” said Gradzhyan.

Her grandmother taught her how to cook. She followed her late grandmother’s recipes and took inspiration from cooking shows.

She says, “I watched a lot of the Food Network.”

Grahzhyan is a big fan of television chef Bobby Flay. And, as Gradzhyan explains it, one day she said to her husband, “I think I can do this!”

She saved enough cash to lease space in what used to be a hole-in-the-wall Mexican joint in Valley Glen.

Gradzhyan stands proudly in the kitchen, waves her arms and says, “And now this is my place. My everything!”

Gradzhyan prepared what she knew best, authentic Mediterranean fare. Shish kabobs, falafels and gyros were just a few of the menu items. She didn’t use canned foods. Fresh ingredients are more expensive, but she didn’t know any better. Gradzhyan made everything from scratch, because that’s what her Grandmother taught her. She also let her own gastronomic instincts guide her. She added her own special touches to created unique dishes.

But for the first few years Gradzhyan struggled. The restaurant was close to failing.

Then, social media came to the rescue. Word began to get out about Gradzhyan’s delicious food. Customers raved about Lusy’s on Yelp, which rated the restaurant as “among the top in Los Angeles for fresh Mediterranean cuisine.”

“They say we have wonderful food and great service,” said Gradzhyan.

And Gradzhyan says the odd spelling of her name made the business stand out on search engines, setting her apart from the numerous and commonly-spelled “Lucy-with-a-C” restaurants.

Food critics raved about the menu items, like Lusy’s inimitable Creamy Leek Soup. “That was my grandmother’s,” said Gradzhyan with pride.

She also appeared on the cover of food publications. Gradzhyan points to a framed copy on her kitchen wall. “Oh my God!” she says, “The next day we had a line out the door.”

Gradzhyan won a food competition. And at an industry event, she caught the eye of her idol Bobby Flay, who sent her a nice note.

Gradzhyan became so successful that she opened a second location in Encino.

Then, COVID hit. And Gradzhyan’s business took a hit as well.

However, she found a way to not only stay in business, but to give back to the neighbors who made her restaurant a success.

Gradzhyan was accepted into an LA City program called “Great Plates” which funds local restaurants to feed low-income elderly people who would otherwise go hungry during the pandemic.

In an area of the restaurant normally reserved for dining, there are containers with meals stacked up high on a table. And her employees rush to pack them into boxes.  Each week, low-income seniors in the area receive a box containing five meals.

“I love it,” says Gradzhyan. “It’s more than joy.”

She says that joy comes from her grandmother. She is just passing it along. As Gradzhyan places stickers on the food packages, shebursts into tears.

“She is the one who (taught) me. She is wonderful,” said Gradzhyan. “God bless her soul.” She then adds, “I can make someone happy.”

Each week a small fleet of cabs pick up and, then, deliver hundreds of Lusy’s tasty, award-winning Mediterranean meals to those who need them. But sadly, the city’s “Good Plates” program is expiring. But you have to believe that somehow, someway, Gradzhyan’s good heart will still find a way to give back.

“You have to give to receive,” says Gradzhyan.

She waves to a cab as it pulls away and shouts, “Bye bye!”

Giving back is another ingredient in her grandmother’s recipe.