Meet Helen Zhang, co-owner of the newly opened Ziggy’s Roman Cafe in DUMBO, launched this fall with her husband, Igor Hadzismajlovic, co-founder of the iconic West Village cocktail bar Employees Only. With Ziggy’s, the couple set out to create a family-friendly spot where parents can enjoy a relaxed meal and cocktails and kids can play in a dedicated area stocked with toys. Learn more about Helen’s career journey and life in Brooklyn!
Our new Events Calendar is here featuring convenient filters by category, location, ages, dates and more to make your Brooklyn social life as fun and meaningful as possible.
Have you checked out CONNECT – where families find what matters? Whether you are looking for a preschool, face painter, speech therapist, writing tutor, camp, meal delivery service, child therapist or piano teacher, CONNECT is the one-stop solution for parents, easy to navigate and curated!
Your job title: Co-founder of Ziggy’s Roman Cafe
Your work in one sentence: I run a family-friendly neighborhood restaurant in Dumbo.
Your children: Two boys: Rio, 7 and Ziggy, 5
Where do your kids go to school: PS8 in Brooklyn Heights
Which neighborhood do you live in: Downtown Brooklyn
What do you love about living in Brooklyn: The expansive parks, running along the waterfront, hidden gem restaurants, and sense of community.
More information about your business: Ziggy’s Roman Cafe is a concept my husband Igor and I dreamed up because of our personal nightmarish experiences dining out with our young kids (now 5 and 7). I’m a former restaurant publicist, and my husband co-founded one of the most iconic cocktail bars in the world, so eating and drinking has always been a big part of our lives. Before we had kids we loved to go out, but with kids we felt like we were always choosing between a practical option (food hall or Shake Shack) or take our chances going to a “vibey” restaurant that could make a good martini, and pray our kids would behave (they usually didn’t). We came up with our dream restaurant (named after one of our boys) where we could have great drinks and delicious food — a place we would be happy to go to pre-children. We worked with a few amazing chefs to curate a menu of easy Italian that’s exciting to eat any day of the week, with mind-blowing thin crust Roman-style pizzas. We’re incorporating a few kid-friendly design elements that are a nod to parents, but won’t alienate any non-parents either. Our goal is to become a third space in the Dumbo community for friends and neighbors to gather for any occasion.
Do you want all local parenting news in your inbox? Sign-up for our weekly newsletter now!
Updated: November 24, 2025.
