Little Flower, New Astoria Coffee Shop, Puts Community At Forefront

ASTORIA, QUEENS — For Ali Zaman, opening his own business was something of a far-off dream until last year, when a neighborhood landlord walked into his father's restaurant.

Ali, the 26-year-old son of the eponymous owner of Sami's Kabab House, learned that a storefront had become available on the corner of 36th Avenue and 28th Street — around the corner from his father's restaurant. The building owner wondered if the Zamans would be interested in expanding their beloved Afghan eatery.

Sami Zaman initially conceived of a specialty sandwich shop. But as Ali mulled it over with friends, he thought about the dearth of cafes in western Astoria.

"We started talking about coffee," he said. "From Vernon Boulevard to 31st Street, on 36th Avenue, there's no coffee shop."

The resulting concept — a high-quality coffee shop serving drinks, pastries and halal sandwiches — opened on Monday as Little Flower Cafe. Formerly home to an Ecuadorian restaurant, a renovation has transformed the space into a sleek eatery with 15 indoor seats, plus sidewalk tables.

The food menu, featuring an egg sandwich, avocado toast, hot chicken sandwich and a butternut squash salad, was designed alongside Christian Ortiz — former chef of the Mexican restaurant Yuco in the West Village.

The all-important coffee program is run by Hayden Dominguez, 27, who first crossed paths with Zaman in 2019 while working as a barista at Astoria's own Kinship Coffee.

"We kind of hit it off," said Dominguez, a California native who spent much of his life in Mexico before moving to New York City around three years ago. When Zaman approached him about joining the new enterprise, Dominguez agreed, after getting assurances that it would place an emphasis on top-quality food.

Little Flower sources its beans from Sey Coffee, a celebrated Brooklyn-based roaster. While Dominguez says a basic drip coffee is the best way to appreciate the brews, Little Flower also offers specialty drinks like rose matcha, cardamom oat lattes and chai, made in-house by boiling loose-leaf tea leaves.

Other drinks include herbal teas, hot cocoa and kombucha from Brooklyn's Unified Ferments — kept alcohol-free in order to be halal.

Pastries, also made in-house, include a strawberry danish, lemon olive oil cake and a cardamom doughnut filled with firni, an Afghan custard. Patch sampled a cardamom knot pastry on Tuesday, whose glossy, crunchy shell gave way to a fluffy interior.

For Dominguez, the cafe's first few days of life have validated what made him enter the coffee business in the first place: the customers.

"It's been so cool, everyone's been so hyped," he said. "I love people, I love human interaction ... I feel like the best, most organic, natural way to do that is working in a coffee shop."

Zaman admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the process of opening a new business. Still, it feels only natural to run a restaurant in the neighborhood where he was born and now lives.

"Queens is such a big part of my identity, and I love it here," he said. "I never have to leave Astoria."

Little Flower cafe is open daily at 25-35 36th Ave., from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday atn 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday.