“I remember the first time I saw my dad barbecue,” Armen Martirosyan says as he scrubs the grill at Mini Kabob inside the Westfield Topanga shopping center’s recently opened Topanga Social food hall.

There is something primitive in the appeal of a kabob. Whether you like to grill chunks of meat or you prefer fresh vegetables, skewering food onto sticks and cooking it over a fire (or in the oven) ...