Little Zelda Grows Up

No doubt many people assume that the owners of Little Zelda, the tiny European Café that opened earlier this year on Franklin, decided to open a coffee shop and then a few months in, got the idea to serve alcohol to the night crowd. 

But in fact, the reverse is true.

"The original idea for our space was a wine bar,” said Michael de Zayas, who .

But getting a liquor license, even just for beer and wine, takes time.

“It’s a lengthy process, so we decided to do something during the day—and that’s where the café came in,” he said.

The cafe became and force of its own, “and people are now surprised that we’re doing beer and wine," de Zayas added.

The couple, who named the spot after their , started serving wine, beer, and several Spanish small plates. Although the café as a whole has a Pan-European theme, the couple chose Spain for the evening food and wine selections.

“It’s a place we both love, the food and wine there is possibly the best in the world,” De Zayas said. Plus, De Zayas’ father is Cuban, with ancestors from Spain.

In June, De Zayas and Blumm added a Thursday night sing-along for adults, where like-minded fans can belt their hearts out to such albums as The Smiths' The Queen is Dead and Weezer's The Blue Album.

(This week's choice is Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life)

And just this week, they added a weekly meeting of the (which is about as grown up as you can get). The group will read "In Search of Lost Time" very slowly and meet every Sunday evening to discuss it for the next two years. (If you’ve always wanted to be able to say you’ve read Proust, you now have a support group to help you get through it.)

A former travel writer from Miami, de Zayas and wife, Kate Blumm, a spokeswoman at the who grew up on the Upper West Side, moved to Crown Heights a block from the shop a little over a year ago. They fell in love with the community spirit of the neighborhood and decided to join in by opening what quickly became a local hangout.

And the friendly spot is a true family endeavor. Besides being named after the couple’s toddler, who makes frequent appearance at the shop, Blumm's younger brother, Eli, also works at the shop. And old photos of Kate’s family decorate the walls.

Less than a year after opening the shop has a fiercely loyal customer base. So will the couple expand the shop, which currently only seats a handful of people?

Not anytime soon, de Zayas said.

“This is a family operation,” he said. “It’s called Little Zelda and we’d like to keep it little.”

Little Zelda is located at 728 Franklin Ave. bet. Park and Sterling. (347) 378-2915.