Zarapé Cocina & Cantina, owned by Stefano Mozher and Onésimo “Oni” Méndez, recently hit its eight-month milestone in Long Beach. Zarapé is a Mexican-Mediterranean fusion restaurant that blends regional Mexican cuisines from Oaxaca, Puebla, Jalisco and Veracruz with Mediterranean influences.
Complimented by this pairing of cultures, unique cocktails and beverages, Zarapé’s true rarity lies in its 100% scratch kitchen. What differs from the popular heat-and-serve method of cooking is that a scratch kitchen restaurant focuses on the preparation of in-house food from raw, whole and fresh ingredients rather than pre-made, canned, frozen or processed foods.
Meanwhile, Zarapé’s flagship restaurant in West Hollywood is in its fifth year and has become a standout restaurant for residents.
It all began with two friends and a conversation over beers.
Childhood and Early Growth in the Food Industry
The co-owners of Zarapé Cocina & Cantina come from different parts of the world, but they share an appreciation for food.
Mozher grew up in Casablanca, Morocco and was guided into an adventurous food palette by his father, an avid seafood lover.
He recalls the two of them visiting the restaurant Great Britain in Morocco with its beautiful view and hitting the San Francisco port.
“Me and my father [would] just sit there and just literally eat any type of fish, whether it’s a snapper or calamari or sardines, just that moment specifically reminded me of why I do this,” Mozher said.
Méndez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico and came to the United States when he was two years old. He got his first taste of the food business at 17 as a taquero at Loteria Grill in Los Angeles. At 25, his uncle offered to teach him how to cook food from scratch rather than serve food that has already been prepared.
“Little by little, I started tasting everything, just getting familiar with everything, the dishes, plates, hot sauce,” he said. “I started learning and it was actually really fun.”
Mozher and Méndez first crossed paths at Loteria Grill when the former came on board as the vice president of the business in 2012.
When the business closed down in 2019, the pair stayed connected and became friends. Mozher said the co-restaurateurs always saw eye to eye and he knew if they ever crossed paths again, they could build something together.
That same year, Méndez approached Mozher about starting a restaurant. They knew they had different cultural perspectives to offer and decided to go all-in on figuring out how their restaurant could highlight how distinct flavors can complement one another.
Soon, they would have a location — West Hollywood — and a name tying Mexico and Morocco together: Zarapé, an ode to traditional, bright colored garments.
Zarapé’s is Officially Open for Business
The pair pulled the trigger and Zarapé’s opened its doors in West Hollywood in 2021. Over time, the West Hollywood restaurant slowly evolved into a neighborhood staple and, in due time, received its flowers from the community, with a current average rating of 4.4 stars on Yelp.
After settling into the West Hollywood location, they had their eyes on expansion. They had no plans to venture out from West Hollywood or to plant roots more than five miles away, but Long Beach was calling their names.
A real estate agent suggested Mozher check out Long Beach and, being a resident of the 562 for 10 years, he knew the area well.
“When we walked into his space … this felt just like West Hollywood; it’s a small, intimate, local community,” Mozher said.
After feeling the place out, the joint owners decided to open Zarapé’s in Belmont Shore on Feb. 2, 2026.
What is Zarapé’s?
Zarapé’s is an upscale casual restaurant specializing in ‘Mexiterranean’ cuisine (100% Mexican fusion with Mediterranean influences), which blends a relaxed atmosphere with high-quality food. In line with the nationwide rise of upscale casual dining, Zarapé focuses on bringing back old-school traditions with great service and 100% all-natural cuisine with no additives or fillers.
Mending two concepts is difficult, but what helped Zarapé’s menu grow into something unique is Mozher and Méndez’s cultural experiences.
“It’s very hard to take a concept and another concept of these two giants, because they’re both giants in the food industry. How can we make a birth out of these two? And that’s when the idea of, ‘Okay, let’s start grabbing some of the best of the best of the Meds [Mediterranean]’ but make them 100% Mexican flavor where it has that authenticity,” Mozher said.
Moroccan and Mexican food are more alike than people may realize, with similar spices and cooking techniques. Mozher said that because of the history of colonization, Moroccan cuisine, or Moroccan culture, is the closest to Mexican culture.
“He [Oni] gets surprised; he’s like, ‘Hey, in Oaxaca or in Puebla, we had this specifically whether it’s chilenos or cactus salad,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, let me show you how we make it back home. He’s like, ‘What do you mean? You guys have X, Y and Z?’” Mozher said. “Throughout time it travelled and then the culture changed and as [it] changed, the dish changed.”
They have a rigorous process of pitching new ideas together and adding subtle flavor changes that guests might not pick up on in hopes of coming up with something new. Creating their menu involved extensive research and experimentation, oftentimes buying new ingredients and throwing on an apron to show off their new creation to one another.
Mozher and Méndez’s attention to detail is what they believe helps make the fusion stand out.
For example, when they began looking for cocktails to create, they started with the basics.
What does a classic Mexican margarita start with? Tequila and lime juice. While Mozher said it’s popular for places to use syrups as a sweetener, they decided to opt out of that. They’ve also crafted their own brand of tequila, Zarapé Tequila, made from 100% plant agave and filtered not to burn your mouth.
You can also look at their food process when they decided to add their own twist to a well-known dish in Italy: cioppino. France, Spain, Morocco and Mexico all have varieties of cioppino, whether they use a different type of fish or a mix of fish and other seafood. Still, the challenge for the two was to give it an undeniable Mexican flavor.
The pair decided to incorporate molcajete salsa to do just that. They also added tomatoes, jalapeño, garlic and chile diablo peppers into a settled sauce. They then decided to make a lobster stock on top of that — cooking it with garlic, white wine and olive oil.
The result — the Cioppino De Ensenada — a deliciously distinct dish.
“We want Zarapé’s to be well known for what we do and our quality. You can go to any Mexican place, grab a taco and everything, but I mean, our craft is very different,” Méndez said.
This level of detail even translates into daily changes in the restaurant’s ambiance, with soft rock music in the morning and upbeat salsa music during happy hour (every day from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.). Once it gets dark, Zarapés dims the lights, turns on the lamps and leans into an intimate setting.
“When you come in, we want to give you an experience and that experience is just making you forget the outside,” Mozher said.
Zarapé’s (4702 E. Second St.) is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. For more information about the restaurant, check out their website.
