Sava Lelcaj, owner of Ann Arbor's Sava's Café, has been in the restaurant business for half her life - ever since she started busing tables at age 13. Now, at age 26, she has combined those years of experience with still-youthful enthusiasm to move her small café across State Street into the former Zanzibar restaurant, quadrupling the café's space and nearly tripling the staff.

Lelcaj admits the transition was a little rough.

"We got off to a pretty crazy start. I bit off more than I could chew," she said of the August transition, which took place in less than a week.

Lelcaj said now, 3 months later, "things are really, really starting to come together. It's a dream come true. Some days, though, it was like more of a nightmare," she said. "My customers probably thought so, too, but they've been incredibly forgiving and amazing."

Now that the restaurant is established in its new space, Lelcaj has several other ambitions for the future of Sava’s Café. One of her waitresses is serving a full school year’s internship helping the business "go green." Lelcaj and her staff are already recycling, but they plan to do more of it. Additionally, she plans to install a solar panel to provide some of the light in the building and begin using biodegradable products.

Lelcaj said the café’s menu will continue to focus on sandwiches, but she plans to add more dinner entrees, and the café will offer alcohol early next year when the restaurant gets its liquor license. She will also eliminate items on the menu that slow down the flow in the kitchen to make sure wait times for food will be more reasonable.

And, Lelcaj also has ambitions to bring another Sava’s Café location to New York City sometime in the next few years. She dreams of bringing a small piece of Ann Arbor to the big city and shipping in food from local Ann Arbor companies like Zingerman’s.

In the meantime, Lelcaj continually reads up on business and culinary trends. She relies on both her own research and on her staff's ideas.

“I have a young, energetic staff, who are all involved. Everybody brings ideas to the table,” she said. “I want them to work with me toward a goal, not for me.”

That sense of collaboration extends not just to her staff but also to her customers and the community at large. During the move in August, she said friends and regular customers pitched in to complete a list of tasks necessary to get the restaurant up and running.

She said many of her regulars have been incredibly loyal, right from the beginning, and that clientele often makes the restaurant feel more like dining at a good friend’s house.

"The customers who have been with us since we were in the old place are part of Sava’s family, for sure,” she said.

Background

Education: University of Toronto - Journalism.

Family: Overwhelmingly large Albanian Catholic family.

Residence: Downtown Ypsilanti.

Business Insights

Best business decision: Allowing my love for people and food to guide me to unexpected places.

Worst business decision: It’s too early to have had such mistakes, but I learn from all my mistakes.

Best way to keep a competitive edge: Never settling.

Personal hero: My mom.

How do you motivate people? Sharing my passion.

What advice would you give to yourself in college? Creativity is more important than knowledge.

Word that best describes you: Passionate.

First Web site you check in the morning: Email accounts.

Confessions

What keeps you up at night? Sudoku and/or red wine.

Pet peeve: Without a doubt, people chewing with their mouths open.

Guilty pleasure: Sleep, Hennessy, anti-wrinkle skin care products and purchasing - anything.

First job: Bussing tables at a Greek restaurant at age 13.

First choice for a new career: Food critic.

Treasures

Favorite cause: Breast cancer awareness.

Favorite book: “How to Know God,” by Deepak Chopra.

Favorite movie: "Cinema Paradiso."

Favorite hobby: Playing Funky Monkey, a Megatouch game, at the bar.

Favorite restaurant: My top five are Philipe in NYC, Il Mulino in Puerto Rico, La Palete and Joso's in Toronto and Café Martonrano in Ft. Lauderdale (not the one in Vegas).

LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Facebook.

Typical Saturday: Game day in my big house.

What team do you root for? I'm a guilty fair-weather fan.

Wheels: White Lexus GS.

Who would play you in a movie? Holly Golightly from "Breakfast at Tiffany's."