In 2020, venues—and nearly all businesses in the social, nightlife, and entertainment space—were forced to close their doors, many remaining closed for over a year. Sadly, some never reopened.
One of Pasadena’s most notable venues, NOOR, managed to weather the pandemic storm by pivoting to catering services—but that transition wasn’t a single step. Robert Shahnazarian, General Manager of NOOR, joined us for a Q&A about this unusual and inspiring story.
Question: How did NOOR come to start NOORtoGO?
Answer: We never closed our kitchen. Very soon after the start of the pandemic, we decided we couldn’t just sit back and do nothing while so many in our community were struggling. So on March 27, 2020, we launched Community Soup To Go.
Once a week, our staff would come in, prepare soup from scratch, and hand out free 32-ounce containers of nutritious, organic soup to anyone who stopped by. It was made with the same high-quality ingredients from our trusted local suppliers—the same ones we use for our events. It was a way to give back to the community that as supported us, but also to promote health and immunity through nourishing food.
Question: How did NOOR fund the Community Soup To Go program?
Answer: For the first several weeks, we self-funded the entire food donation program. Eventually, with our core business still closed, it became difficult to sustain. At the end of April, we raised over $3,500 in donations through GoFundMe. It didn’t cover all the costs, but it certainly helped—and the Community Soup To Go program continued for several weeks afterward.
Question: How much food did you give away?
Answer: Each week, we prepared and handed out about 1,200 containers of 32-ounce soup to people who stopped by NOOR for “Soup Friday.” We also made additional donations to the Pasadena Senior Center, Ronald McDonald House, and Hathaway-Sycamores Child & Family Services.
Question: How long were you able to run the Community Soup program?
Answer: Stimulus checks and other government support took a long time to be approved and distributed. During that period, many people were literally trying to survive with no income. Lines of cars formed at food banks—it was a truly desperate time.
We started our Community Soup To Go program during this critical period and concluded it once things had begun to improve for the community at large.
Question: So how did the Community Soup program turn into NOORtoGO?
Answer: We had kept NOOR open and contributing in this small way for months, but with no income from events, it became increasingly difficult to keep the lights on and pay our staff. We realized that the only way forward was to pivot to online catering—but entering a crowded market was going to be a challenge.
We quickly determined that we needed a strong online presence for NOORtoGO to succeed. Since we’ve always tried to stay at the forefront of our industry, we created a dedicated website in record time—focusing on an easy-to-use, one-stop ordering system—and adapted our menu to suit smaller gatherings and at-home events.
Question: Reading through NOOR’s reviews on sites like Yelp and The Knot, the food served at your events is often described as a highlight. Was it difficult to adapt that high-end, gourmet quality for pickup and reheating at home?
Answer: Not at all! We’ve long donated food to organizations like Ronald McDonald House and Union Station Homeless Services, so we were already familiar with packaging food for transport—both ready-to-serve and for reheating.
We’d also catered many off-site events in the past, so this wasn’t entirely new territory. We had already sourced environmentally friendly, recyclable, and reusable packaging, and had been using it for some time for those purposes.
Question: What happened to NOORtoGO after everything reopened in 2021?
Answer: The concept proved successful, so we decided to keep NOORtoGO active. When there were no longer any restrictions on gatherings, our catering services became popular for small events at external locations and even corporate offices.
NOORtoGO gets especially busy during Thanksgiving and the holiday season, when we offer a variety of festive lunch and dinner packages for both businesses and families.
Pasadena Spirit
NOOR’s transformation from event venue to community kitchen, and eventually to NOORtoGO, captures the best of Pasadena’s spirit—resilient, compassionate, and always ready to reinvent itself when the moment calls for it.
