GARDEN GROVE : Market and ‘Pancho’ Still There

Once upon a time, when he was knee-high to a cracker barrel, Leo K. Zlaket II was “Pancho,” the cute little son of the owner of one of a fistful of small markets in downtown Garden Grove.

“People used to come in and rub my head,” Zlaket, now 48, said, pointing to a black-and-white photo of a cheery young boy with a Brillo-pad hairdo.

Now, much of that hair is gone, as is most of the original downtown, and all but one of those small markets has vanished too. The surviving Zlaket’s Market is not only a link to Garden Grove’s rural past, but perhaps also a signpost of the future.

Walking into the store at 12921 Main St. takes the shopper back a few decades. The market’s heritage, dating back to 1927, is evident from old photographs on the wall, a classic Purex Bleach luminescent clock on the back wall, and the butcher in white who cuts meat to order behind a big glass counter, calling people by their first names.

“We like the nostalgia,” Zlaket said. “But you can’t do business the way you did 40 years ago, the way my father did. There’s nothing wrong with the way he ran a grocery store, but people have different needs.”

Today, Zlaket’s is surviving the competition from convenience stores and mega-markets by offering service and speciality items.

“We feel that the future for us is as a speciality store, a gourmet store,” he said.

In addition to traditional groceries, Zlaket’s now has a full-scale deli, and has branched out into catering.

“Last year, when George (Leo’s brother) retired, and Dad (Leo Sr.) passed away, we looked at a lot of things we wanted to do,” said Virginia, Leo’s wife and co-owner of the market. “We could have moved down to South Orange County, and done something with a little more splash and pizazz.” Indeed, say the Zlakets, several developers in the more trendy coastal communities tried to lure them south.

Finally, after some tempting offers, the couple decided to keep the family business where it has been since the Coolidge Administration. The roots in Garden Grove were just too deep.

“Mom and Dad really gave to the community,” Virginia Zlaket said. “The early days were hard days. Everyone was broke. Back then, your grocer was your banker. The guy in the bank down the street wouldn’t lend you money, but you could go to my dad and say, ‘Lend me $25,’ and he’d put it on your tab. My mother was the same kind of person. She practiced what she preached.”

Over the years, the downtown has undergone a transformation. In the 1950s, Garden Grove boomed from a sleepy farm town to a modern suburb. In the mid-1960s, Euclid Street was rerouted east of the old business district to link up with what was then Verano Street, and the vestigial remains dubbed Main Street. The downtown fell on hard times, and city renovation efforts may only now be paying off.

“I think the area is on the upswing,” Leo Zlaket said. But it will take some imagination and money, he said. “Times have changed. It used to be that everyone who came in here, I knew their name. Now, it’s not that way.” On three sides of Main Street, vacant land awaits redevelopment projects. The Zlakets are hoping that these projects will help their business, but they’re not waiting for that.

“You have to have progress,” Leo Zlaket said. “Things are going to change. You have to learn to adapt to that change.” For one thing, hardly anyone calls him Pancho anymore.