Hepcat and I happened into the Zana Cafe on Seventh Avenue near Ninth Street. We noticed Owner Rosana Rosa, who also owns Delices de Paris and  assumed that the new place was a branch of Delices de Paris. But Brooklyn Papers has the real story.

The Zana Cafe is Rosa’s solo effort. She and husband, Michael Martin, have split up. They continue to own Delices de Paris together. But at the new place, Rosa sells French and Italian pastries and European
products — just like Delices de Paris.  I wonder who is baking for her now? If memory serves, Martin was a big deal Upper East Side French baker who worked for Jackie Kennedy. The couple owned a shop in the mid-west before coming east to Park Slope.

With all the drama: customers are confused: Martin hung a sign in the front window of Delices de Paris  warning his customers that his shop has nothing to do with his ex’s new shop — despite
how much it looks like his 9th Street shop.

He told the Brooklyn Papers: “They are completely different products,” he said. “She used the
same [paint] to mislead the customers and make them think that the two
shops are related.”

She told the Brooklyn Papers: “Sure, there is competition, but so what? Each block in Park Slope
is different, there are people who live up here and don’t even know
about the shop down near Fifth Avenue."

In the Brooklyn Papers article, Rosa defends her right to create a shop that looks like the other one. She told BP:  “I built Delices de
Paris with my own hands. When we began, there was no place in Park
Slope to get a chocolate croissant, now you have Colson Patisserie on
Sixth Avenue and everyone is doing the French thing.”

I can attest to that: Delices de Paris was for a long time the only good French bakery in the neighborhood. Many people in Park Slope were unaware of it as it is located on 9th Street near Fifth Avenue. But word spread.

I was always very impressed with the shop and Rosa struck me as a savvy, dedicated and adventurous entrepreneur She was very much the front-person of the shop. But Martin, of course, was the master baker in the kitchen.

Obviously the Rosa-Martin divorce has gotten ugly. Still, I am quite sure that Rosa will make a success of her new location.