Olive oil, ouzo and Greek dishwashing liquid: Ilias now sells it in its Greek supermarket in Groningen

Ilias Kotsiris (62) points to a photo on the wall of his new Greek food shop on Nieuwe Ebbingestraat. His father stands behind the counter in his small shop in a village near the Greek city of Kalamata. “My parents worked a lot on the farm, so they weren’t always there. But the people in the village knew where the key was, so they let themselves in to do their shopping,” says Ilias. “That store was called Pantopolion.”

And now the Ilias store in Groningen is also called Pantopolion.

Everything from Greek cuisine

You’ll get everything you could possibly need from Greek cuisine – and things you’d never thought of before. Everything carefully selected and imported by Ilias himself. Feta that is bursting with flavor, olives in oil instead of vinegar and water (which is more common and cheaper), special wines from Greek vineyards, olive oil from his own estate near Kalamata, pure honey and fresh fruit and vegetables. Grown under the Greek sun and in the Greek soil.

Ilias came to the Netherlands about forty years ago, when he was 22. “I was following a blonde girl I met in Greece when she was on holiday there. I call it a holiday romance that got out of hand.”

He was supposed to visit her for two weeks the following winter, but it ended up being a bit longer. “It took some getting used to being here. It was -15 degrees and the first day here I fell with my bike because it was slippery. But luckily I had rose-colored glasses on because I was in love, so everything was beautiful.”

Helping out at Four Roses restaurant

Although he says he was chasing love, Ilias was also looking for a better life. In Greece, from the age of 14, he had to go to school in the evening and work during the day. Otherwise there simply would not be enough income in the family. “I had the ambition to go further in life than my parents. They always worked and never had any money left over. I saw opportunities in the Netherlands.”

“My girlfriend worked at Four Roses and I thought she was away too much. I said: I will help you there, then you will be ready sooner and we can be together more.”

He turned out to be quite good in the kitchen and soon got to work in earnest. During his first twenty years in the Netherlands, Ilias was chef at Four Roses restaurant.

Started Greek wholesale business after twenty years

But he missed Greece and the food from his motherland. He decided to quit the restaurant and start importing and selling Greek products. He first did this from a small room and to a small group of people. But it grew and grew.

His Greek wholesaler De Smaken van Greece now sells products to restaurants and delicatessens throughout the Netherlands. In 2005 he started a webshop, so that ‘ordinary people’ can also buy directly from him. This now becomes even easier thanks to Pantopolion.

Ilias has four children. They all worked at Four Roses. He also met his wife, Cecile, in the restaurant when she worked there (just to be clear: this is someone different from the blonde holiday sweetheart). His youngest son, Nikos, and his wife co-own the company.

Ilias: “One day Nikos came to us with the message that he had to tell us something. I said, ‘You didn’t get anyone pregnant, did you?’ But no, he just wanted to join the company. Without Nikos we would not have opened this store. My wife and I thought we would work for a few more years and then we would start winding down. But now that Nikos has joined us, we have pressed the gas again, instead of hitting the brakes.”

Dishwashing liquid, detergent and coffee

He shows what he has on the shelves. From a specific brand of chocolate waffles that ‘everyone in Greece loves and grew up with’, to Nescafé Frappé. “They also have this brand at Jumbo, but it doesn’t foam. Greeks love iced coffee and this is just the right one. With foam.” And a few euros more expensive than Jumbo’s.

There is also olive oil that his brother made. “I have an estate with olive trees in Greece, which are maintained exactly as I want. No fertilizer and little water. I go there six times a year to watch. Unfortunately, the harvest was poor this year.”

He shows Ava dish soap and Tide laundry detergent. “When Greeks see this, they shout for joy. And it doesn’t make sense, because you can also find good detergent in the Netherlands. But that’s just it: we’re selling emotions here. Greeks know this from home, they are homesick, they miss this.”

The number of Greeks in the Netherlands is increasing according to Ilias. “More and more people are moving because of the economic malaise in the country. And these are people with good jobs and enough money. Last year we passed the limit of 100,000 Greeks in the Netherlands. They are looking for the food they know from home.” But of course the store is also there for Dutch people who, for example, have good memories of a Greek product, or who simply like good food.