At noon, the crowd grows older. Students from the high school a few doors away crowd in to buy falafels and panini. By afternoon, local business people and neighbors are picking up their takeout or settling in for a quiet smoothie while using the café's free high-speed Internet connection.

It's a typical day, filled with friendly chatter, good eats and neighborly nods. It's also another reason for owners Mahin and Khalil Tahaei to thank their lucky stars.

"I'm very proud that I've been able to make it," Khalil says ardently, recalling his beginning in the coffee house business just three years ago when the area was in recession and he couldn't find a job in his field.

"I never thought I'd be a restaurateur--I'd never even made a sandwich," he marvels, "and Mahin had never worked outside the home!" The two had lived all over the world for 25 years while Khalil applied his Ph.D. in the agricultural world of corn breeding. Mahin, a laboratory technician, never worked in her profession, choosing instead to stay at home to rear their two daughters. "We had to do something," Khalil says.

"Computers? A franchise?" Then the couple saw an ad for the café, and they plunged.

"I remember our first day of business," he says. "We made $70--and $40 of that was a tip some friends, our first customers, secretly slipped under the plate."

Mahin has taken her skill with home cooking into the café. Gradually she has gone from serving simple sandwiches to offering new items such as falafel plates with cucumber, lettuce, tomato and a side dish of tabouli ($6.60), panini (Italian roll) with turkey, ham or chicken and a small salad ($6.50) and the Café De Flore mango salad with sliced red beets, olives, walnuts and the café's special dressing ($6).

Sandwiches are made as wraps, on bagels, toasted bread, pita or focaccia bread. A novel combination of ingredients is in the chicken brie sandwich: chicken breast grilled on focaccia bread with melted brie, sliced apple and onion ($7.20). Drinks include espressos, fruit smoothies, chai or soy lattes, root beer floats and mocha drinks. Smoothies can be made with soymilk, and soups are made fresh daily.

While weekday routines bring a constant stream of local customers, weekend events bring a bonanza to the small café.

"Fourth of July was unbelievable!" exclaims Khalil. "They used our restrooms," he chuckles, "but they bought lots of coffee ... We were so tired that we escaped at 5:30 p.m."

Mahin and Khalil live just up the hill from the cafe in Los Gatos on Pennsylvania Avenue. They are close enough to home for their daughters--both students--to pop in for lunch, lending a hand when it's especially busy. Natasha, 30, just graduated with a degree in art from San José State University, while Anoushka, 28, is pursuing her master's degree in psychology at Santa Clara University.

Café De Flore is at 111 E. Main St. in Los Gatos. It is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. On Music in the Park Sundays it will be open from 7:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Call or fax 408.354.1249 for takeout or catering platters. Delivery is available.