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'Just like Yia Yia made'

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BY KLINT LOWRY

THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: April 25, 2009

Updated: 05/01/2009 08:11 am

Whether it's a bad case of the sniffles or simple hunger pangs, customers at area grocery and drugstores are discovering a cure for what ails them - "Greek penicillin" as it is sometimes called. No prescription necessary. Take several spoonfuls, and feel free to have seconds.

For more than 30 years, Manuel and Mary Houllis owned the popular Island House Restaurant in Clearwater Beach. Their children, Michael and Madelyne, worked at the restaurant.

The Island House is long-closed, and their parents both died in 1998, but Michael Houllis and Madelyne LaChance continued to hear from former customers how much they loved the restaurant's avgolemono soupa, the traditional Greek chicken soup made with lemon, orzo and egg, how they would scrape their spoons across the surface of the bowl so as not to miss a drop.

A few years ago, Houllis and LaChance decided to resurrect the family recipe. Today, customers at local Walgreen's, Winn-Dixie, Publix and dozens of independent stores can find "It's Greek to me!" chicken soup. The blue, 15-ounce cans with a distinctive Hellenic motif boast a product inside that's "delightfully different" and "just like Yia Yia made."

Yia Yia - pronounced Yah Yah - means grandmother, in Greek.

Ad campaigns may exaggerate, but figures don't lie. Starting up 16 months ago, just before the current recession hit, and with Michael and Madelyne possessing no prior consumer-product marketing experience, 180,000 cans of "It's Greek to Me!" have been sold, Houllis said. As might be expected, the soup first took off in Tarpon Springs, where the company is based.

Houllis said when they first started manufacturing he gave a couple of cans to his real estate agent. Emmanuel Pantelis, manager of the Walgreens store at 305 S. Pinellas Ave., was a dinner guest at the agent's home, saw the cans and decided this was something that could sell in Tarpon Springs. Pantelis got in touch with Houllis, who brought three cases of soup to the store. They flew off the shelf.

"They figured it would do well here, with the Greek community," Houllis said. It is now regularly available at 47 area Walgreens and several Winn-Dixie locations. They have also just signed on with Publix Supermarkets.

"If your neighborhood Publix, Walgreen's or Winn-Dixie doesn't have it, ask for it," Houllis said.

All stores within those companies have access to the soup even if they do not regularly carry it. The soup is also available at dozens of independent grocery and specialty stores, particularly in northern Pinellas County, but throughout Pinellas County, West Pasco and western Hillsborough counties.

The family's goal is for "It's Greek to Me!" to be available anywhere soup is sold. They have already made significant inroads in taking the product national; it is already sold in the Miami area, as well as Ohio, New York, Wisconsin and at about 75 stores in the Chicago area.

While they look for areas with a strong Greek presence, Houllis said, if anything, Greeks have been their toughest customers so far.

"We've done 18 Greek festivals around the state," he said. Many people's initial reaction is that canned avgolemono soupa almost sacrilegious.

"The Greek soup is second only to communion in the Greek lore, believe me," Houllis said. Every family has a recipe; children are raised on it from infancy. The idea of chicken soup as a cure for everything from the common cold to homesickness is a serious part of cultural tradition.

A lot of people are skeptical, Houllis said. It's a difficult soup to make, even at home. They spent two years tinkering with the family recipe to figure out how it could be mass-produced and still be the real thing. People are skeptical, he said, until they try it.

To learn more about "It's Greek to Me!" soup, including addresses of several locations where it is available, visit the company's Web site. www.itsgreektomefoods.com>.

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