In 1906, 18-year-old Marie Mekkelsen ate homemade aebleskivers with her parents in Denmark.
It was her final meal with them before she embarked on a ship bound for the United States. With her cast iron pan to make the orb-shaped pancakes and few belongings in tow, she eventually settled on a farm in Iowa, where she raised a family.
Mekkelsen's aebleskiver pan now hangs on the wall of Old European restaurant on North Division Street, one of the handful of locations where her grandchildren and great-grandchildren carry on her legacy by serving Scandinavian brunch food classics.
The family's newest location, Little Euro, opened on the lower South Hill at the beginning of November, in a space most recently home to Summit Kitchen & Canteen and, before that, Lindaman's Gourmet To-Go.
"I learned a lot of the cooking from my grandmother, our whole family did," says Tami Sevier, Little Euro's owner.
Locals might be familiar with the family's other European brunch spots. The first was opened in Pullman in 1989 by Sevier's brother and sister-in-law, and is now owned by their daughter, Melynnda.
Sevier and her husband, Dave, saw an opportunity to share Grandma Marie's recipes in Spokane and opened up a second Old European location in 2008, followed by the first Little Euro in Spokane Valley in 2012. Since then, the Seviers had been eyeing the South Hill for a third Spokane location.
Little Euro continues to be a family affair, and one of Sevier's sons, Logan, stepped in to manage the newest location.
"We just love the neighborhood feel up here," she says. "So that's what we were kind of looking for, somewhere we could kind of connect with the neighborhood. And it's already totally happening."
Diners familiar with the Seviers' other establishments have been excited to try the newest Little Euro during its first few weeks open, including many nearby residents who can now walk there from their homes.
"We had been here so long that I feel like our customers become family in a lot of ways," Sevier says.
While Old European's space has a more traditional feel, with rustic wood features and Danish decor, both Little Euro locations aim to be bright and fresh.
The new South Hill location boasts an orange color scheme, with white marble tables, handcrafted wood cabinets, a wooden bar and decorative cutting boards — thanks to Dave Sevier's craftsmanship — plus exposed brick walls contrasted with white tile.
Though the two restaurants' branding is different, the menus are practically identical, embodying not only Grandma Marie's recipes, but also dishes from family friends, such as Swedish crepes ($16.50-$17) and German potato pancakes ($15.75-$18.25).
With the Scandinavian cake plate ($17.50), diners can sample the famous aebleskivers, Swedish crepes topped with whipped cream, German potato sausage pancake (think omelet meets hashbrowns) and good ol' hotcakes. The cake plate also comes with maple and raspberry syrup, and homemade applesauce for your dipping pleasure.
The aebleskivers ($10-$12) take the cake, though. Served hot and fresh with a dash of powdered sugar, the spherical shape allows for an extra soft inner texture.
It's a labor of love to create these pancake balls. Unlike the traditional cast iron pan that Marie lugged over from Denmark, which features seven half-circle divots, Little Euro uses two specialty pans with four times as many concavities.
As a dish usually served at family gatherings during holidays, it was challenging to adjust the original recipe to make hundreds of aebleskivers a day.
"We used to have [aebleskiver] on Christmas Eve every year, and my grandmother and my mom used to be right at the stove cooking them in the round pans," Sevier says.
In Little Euro's new kitchen, cook Greg Swagerty shows how to pour batter into each divot and then patiently turn each aebleskiver using wooden skewers until they take shape and become golden brown on the outside.
While delicious when plain, the Sevier family's aebleskivers can also have different fillings like blueberry, huckleberry (when in season), and sausage with havarti cheese.
For a heartier meal, Little Euro's traditional Hungarian goulash ($21) is a top-seller. It has everything a good, savory breakfast should, with a mixture of scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, ham, sausage, bacon, pepper, onions and tomatoes.
The portion sizes are generous at Little Euro, but there's also a lighter, customizable brunch option for smaller appetites. The "Lighter Side" breakfast ($11.25) comes with an egg cooked to order, one protein and one side from a plethora of choices.
A glass of freshly squeezed orange juice ($5-$6.25) pairs nicely with any menu option — heck, I'd return to Little Euro just for a glass.
Behind the bar area sits a mammoth juicer with a basket of oranges resting atop, awaiting their juicy fate. The restaurants' regional manager Jeff Panagos says the family business uses about 24,000 oranges total per month. A single glass of juice takes up to eight oranges!
It wouldn't be brunch without mimosas, though, and Little Euro offers a classic mimosa ($9) using its freshly squeezed orange juice, along with other rotating flavors like watermelon and grapefruit. Can't decide? Order a flight ($16.50) and sip on a little bit of everything.
Little Euro's South Hill location also serves kombucha ($6.50), partnering with the locally based Zen Zymurgist Kombucha to offer a variety of rotating flavors on tap.
Coffee, meanwhile, is a custom blend made by Indaba Coffee, which is served as a nitro cold brew ($5.50), Americano ($4.75), latte ($7) or regular drip ($4).
After a hearty meal at Little Euro, throw out "velbekomme" if you want to impress. While the Danish word has different meanings depending on context, a Danish server may say it to diners to the effect of bon appétit. Velbekomme can also be used to praise the chef after a delicious meal, to which the chef may repeat it back to mean "you're welcome."
From Marie's cast iron pan to your plate, meet the family and taste a long legacy at Little Euro.
Little Euro • 1235 S. Grand Blvd. • Open daily from 7 am-2 pm • littleeurorestaurant.com • 509-381-3023
