by Deborah Rogers | photo by Amanda Cribdon Photography
Pantelis (Lee) Vassiliadis is the owner of Eugene’s Greek Foods. Born in Greece, Lee moved to Victoria as a child with his family, where his parents opened the first Eugene’s restaurant in 1979. Lee now runs Eugene’s Greek Foods from a facility in Central Saanich producing Greek foods for distribution to grocery stores on Vancouver Island and the lower mainland. Lee lives with his family in North Saanich.
Your parents hadn’t been in the restaurant business prior to moving to Canada, so how did the famous Eugene’s Greek restaurant come to be?
From the very beginning, my Dad had a vision to open a traditional Greek Souvlaki snack bar in Victoria. My dad Evgeni (when we came to Canada from Greece people called him Eugene, but that’s another story) and my mom, Paschalina (Lina), my brother Elefterios (Terry) and myself arrived in Victoria with only two suitcases and a trunk in November 1974. My brother, at the age of nine, was the only one who knew any English. My parents took English classes at night school and worked in the day. My dad initially worked as a bricklayer, his trade in Greece, to support our family.
To supplement the family’s income, my dad began working in local Greek restaurants by night and took what construction jobs he could during the day. He quickly became head chef of a local Greek restaurant and soon my mom – an excellent cook herself – joined him. They worked side by side until dad got a great job offer in Edmonton and for a year he worked there, returning to see us only once a month.
Eventually, the whole family decided Victoria was the place for us. My mom encouraged dad to open a souvlaki snack bar and they found their first location in the alleyway of the Royal Bank Building on Douglas and Fort Street. They opened their doors November 24, 1979. Victorians slowly came to know how wonderful Greek souvlaki could be and with lines getting longer and longer, a second Eugene’s opened in May 1986 on Broad Street.
Victoria residents will likely remember the restaurant on Broad Street but Peninsula residents may not know that the Eugene’s tzatziki, homous and pita breads that they buy at the grocery store are from the same Eugene’s! What caused the shift from restaurant food to wholesale? Are you really able to recreate Lina’s original recipes in your Saanichton facility?
After having a family of my own I decided family time was more important and changed paths from restaurant life to wholesale. This allows me to spend more time with my wife Kelly and son Evgeni. I am growing the business so Eugene’s products are available in all grocery stores Island wide and into the lower mainland, while still maintaining the quality. Dad and mom oversee from the background while enjoying their retirement, and customers of Victoria continue to enjoy the same wonderful home-made recipes that Eugene and Lina first served in 1979. These are the same family recipes as we served in the restaurants. Even though our quantities have grown dramatically, we still make the dips in small batches to keep the quality and consistency like mama did.
You started working in the restaurant at nine, and performed many roles including busboy, butcher and then bookkeeper. Did you always know that you would take on the family business? Was it a lot of pressure on your shoulders to continue a brand with such a high reputation?
At such a young age I never thought I would take over the business one day, but I enjoyed working in the family business. At 15 I even liked doing the books because I liked numbers so much.
Over the years you’ve had many visits to Greece and spent extended periods there as a child, are there aspects of Greek life and culture that you’d like to see more of in Canada?
Greek culture revolves around family and food which are two things that are important to me. When my wife and I went to Greece on our honeymoon she was in awe of how warm and friendly Greek people were. I think the different lifestyle you see in Greece is in part because of the weather. The recent heat wave we had here would be normal temperatures for a summer in Greece. The Greeks like to work in the morning, then go home for the hottest part of the day and take a nap. They then emerge from their houses at 10 p.m. when the sun is down, and go for dinner. I think we should adopt the afternoon nap routine here in Canada!
Eugene’s Homous is spelled a little differently than other brands – why is that?
When my dad moved to Victoria, he didn’t know the English language. After going to night school with my mom he slowly began to learn English but was not proficient in writing. When they opened their first restaurant in downtown Victoria, they did their best for spelling the Greek menu items in English. Hummus is not a Greek dish, but a close Lebanese friend shared their recipe for it and dad and mom added their personal touches, creating this yummy Homous. As Hummus was not a staple, as it has become now in people’s homes and the supermarket, no one else had a spelling for it. So dad spelled it how he pronounced it, and this is how “Eugene’s Homous” came to be. Over the years we never corrected it as we thought it’s the quirky way our family started with this dish, so we decided to keep the memories going. The funny thing is that a couple of other companies that started after us use our spelling to this day.
The Helpful Homous program was started in 2018, with a portion of sales for the month of May going towards the patient comfort program at the BC Cancer Foundation. What made you start this initiative? Have the last two years, with the world under Covid-related restrictions, made it harder for a small business to support charity in this way?
My mom has always told me to give when I can, and since cancer has touched some family members and so many people in our community I thought this was a good place to help. Even though these last two years have been difficult for many people with COVID-19, there are people out there still dealing with cancer and other illnesses that need our help.
