Mary Lamey
The Gazette

June 5, 2004

Tim Evangelakos dreams of making it big in oil. Not petroleum, you understand, but olive oil, specifically from his ancestral Greece.

As his name implies, Evangelakos is a bit evangelical when it comes to talking about the virtues of Greek oil. Last month, he opened L'Olive Noire, a Park Ave. boutique stocked with his handpicked selection of olives, oils and related products, whether olive-oil soaps or hand-painted olive bowls.

"I want to share my passion with Montrealers. Everything you see in the store has been chosen by me. This is what I like, I hope other people like it, too," Evangelakos said.

Of course, it helps to have a steady supply of the good stuff, which Evangelakos does.

Among the bottled oils he sells is a house brand "Huile du Village" pressed from olives picked in a family-owned grove in the village of Finiki in Greece's Lakonia region.

"This is my old man's hooch," Evangelakos said proudly, holding up a tall bottle of the stuff which glowed green-gold in the midday sunlight.

Almost all of the 40-litre shipment of cold-pressed oil, sent to him by the cousin who tends the grove, has sold out. He tracked down another oil while in Greece last year and has imported it to Canada. He named it Fotoula, after his 8-year-old daughter, whose picture graces the label. He has other varieties, each with their own flavour notes and suggested uses. None of them costs more than $20 for a 750-ml bottle, making his oil a steal compared with some high-end Italian oils.

"My market is somewhere between the grocery store and the high-end stuff. The quality is there, at a lower price."

The journey from olive-oil amateur to vendor was a slow process. Evangelakos loves good food and loves to talk, two qualities that make him a natural for the retail food business. His wife encouraged him to take his appreciation for Greek oil to the next level.

"It seemed like providence that he was getting all this oil from the family in Greece. I said why not try to do something with it," Claudette Lalonde-Evangelakos said.

He toyed with the idea of becoming a wholesaler, but that meant too much travel and not enough contact with the public. Instead, the couple found a 350-square-foot storefront in what used to the the city's Greek neighbourhood.

Now, the corner of Park Ave. and Laurier Ave. is a fertile blend of Outremont yuppies, Mile End trendies and Orthodox Jews, for whom L'Olive Noire stocks a kosher olive oil.

The Evangelakoses renovated and painted the store in soothing shades of olive green. They designed the logo, business cards, shopping bags and awning, too. Claudette continues to hold down a job at Christina Amerique Inc., a swimwear manufacturer. She works in the store on the weekend.

The business is building slowly, with plenty of word of mouth from foodies who've tried his products. Being next door to Supermarche PA, a quality grocery store with plenty of foot traffic, doesn't hurt.

"We get people who come in for a bottle for themselves and then come back for a bottle for a friend. More and more, people are bringing good quality olive oil as a hostess gift, instead of a bottle of wine," Evangelakos said.

www.olivenoire.com

mlamey@thegazette.canwest.com

Source: The Gazette (Montreal) 2004