Scott Zwiezen, the musician-turned-chef-restauranteur behind Elf Cafe in Echo Park and falafel slinger Dune in Atwater Village and Downtown, has been plotting to open an all-day European restaurant for three decades. When the long and narrow space located two doors down from the original Dune on Glendale Boulevard became available in 2021, Zwiezen and his partners Anne O’Malley and Alexander Mirecki Tavitian teamed up to bring to life a restaurant inspired by Zwiezen’s time living in Prague in the 1990s.

Bar Sinizki, which opens Monday, July 29, at 3147 Glendale Boulevard, will deliver that: a distinct slice of Northeastern European cuisine and culture, specifically that of Ukraine and Poland, to Northeast Los Angeles.

The 800-square-foot space was home to Tavitian’s Kaldi Coffee for 20 years before transforming into its latest iteration, which required gutting it “down to the ribs,” says Zwiezen. The restaurant co-designed with Damian Robledo of River Wild features royal blue checkered concrete tile floors, along with brass, wood, and stone accents; a curved bar with a Calcutta marble top; and a gold-tiled barrel vault to create the illusion of additional height. The intention is to keep the restaurant “classic looking without trying to be like a set,” Zwiezen says. Bar Sinizki seats about 16 inside and another 24 outside between the bar, patio, and dining areas.

Inspired by the laid-back cafe culture found in Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, Zwiezen and his partners envision Bar Sinizki as a neighborhood hub where great coffee is available alongside well-sourced wine and cocktails. “In Los Angeles, it’s either one or the other for the most part,” says Zwiezen. “We wanted to create a spot where people could walk to from the community and hang out and have a civilized afternoon.”

The restaurant is named after Zwiezen’s great-grandfather, Elias Sinizki, who immigrated from Lviv, Ukraine to Chicago. Zwiezen never met his great-grandfather, who operated a small food business called Elias Sinizki Market in Chicago’s South Side in the early 1920s, but wanted to dedicate the restaurant to him, along with “folks from that part of the world,” he says. Coincidentally, the maternal side of Tavitian’s family also traces its roots to Lviv.

The menu, which changes from breakfast, and lunch, to dinner, reflects Zwiezen’s heritage. “This is the food I grew up with and I really love,” he says. “One sometimes thinks, ‘Oh, Ukrainian, Polish food: heavy, thick, hearty stuff.’ It can [also] be very light and deft, and that’s what we’re striving for.”

Mornings bring classic espresso drinks like cappuccinos, lattes, and cortados using beans from City Bean Roasters, as well as an array of pastries from Out of Thin Air, a cottage bakery with a factory in University Park. For those with more time to linger, Bar Sinizki offers breakfast plates, including poached eggs served with a baguette and greens, potato pancakes with sour cream or seasonal fruit compote, rye bread with butter or olive oil and honey or jam, and Czech hemenex — French-style ham and eggs served with herbed potatoes.

The lunch menu is centered around tartines, sandwiches, and smaller bites like majonez jajeczny (oeufs mayonnaise), daily soup specials, and housemade sauerkraut and pickles. Open-faced tartines come topped with chicken liver mousse, smoked trout with dill and butter on homemade hapanleipä (Finnish sourdough bread), and heirloom tomatoes with washed rind cheese. “If the tomato is beautiful and ripe and it’s a good baguette, you don’t need anything more complicated than that to have a transformative sandwich experience,” says Zwiezen.

A tartine layered with sausage, butter, and cheese was inspired by a Harrison Salisbury book about the Russian Revolution called Black Night, White Snow. “When the Soviets started taking over the government in 1917, there was this one very, very chaotic night, and all the people, Lenin, and his whole gang, were all eating sandwiches of sausage, butter, and cheese,” says Zwiezen. “I’ve always had that passage in my mind when I think about open-faced tartines. Simple stuff is what I like.”

The sandwich menu includes kanapka z tuńczykiem (pan bagnat), masło z szynki (jambon beurre), a bistro-style cheeseburger, and more. The baguettes, sourdough bread, and hamburger buns are sourced from Bub and Grandma’s, while Danish rye bread and Alpine bread come from Clark Street Bakery.

The highlight of the dinner menu is the pierogies that use Zwiezen’s grandmother’s recipes. “These truly were recipes that you grew up with because every generation made them,” says O’Malley. The pierogi fillings range from potato and cheese to mushrooms, beef, and sauerkraut. Rounding out the evening offerings are kielbasa z kapusta (Polish sausage with braised cabbage), steak frites, sałatka z marchwi (carrot salad), and halušky, a Slovak-style gnocchi with cheese and bacon.

Elf chef Jose Briseno joins Zwiezen in the kitchen, while his brother Eric Zwiezen spearheads the bar menu, which features a slate of classic cocktails, locally produced natural wines, and a tight selection of vodka and amari.

While it’s too soon to say how Bar Sinizki will resonate with the Atwater Village and greater LA dining communities, O’Malley can already see a European pace of life adapting well to this northeast corner of the city. In Europe, people often “stroll down the boulevard, pop in and sit at a cafe, a friend happens to walk by, and they come and join you at your table,” she says. “For a city like Los Angeles, especially in Atwater, this seems like such a great opportunity to be that [kind of] boulevard.”

Bar Sinizki is located at 3147 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90039, and open daily from 7 a.m. to midnight.