Eurozone: Evergreen store offers a host of Slavic selections

For the past three years, anyone looking for a bottle of kvass — a fermented non-alcoholic drink that tastes like beer and is made from rye bread — has only needed to drive to Evergreen and stop by the Deli of Europe.

The small grocery store on U.S. 2 stocks food imported from Eastern Europe and is frequented by shoppers of German, Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian and other European backgrounds.

It’s also being discovered with increasing frequency by locals who may not have direct ties to the food but become hooked on the fare after a visit.

Gene Shevtsov has owned the store for a year, and he estimates business has grown by about 30 percent since he purchased the establishment from his friend Yevgeney Vovkulin, who has a similar store in Seattle.

Shevtsov’s mother, Olga Bogdonova, works at the store. She speaks little English but can communicate well with the immigrant customers.

When he was 22, Shevtsov moved to Seattle from Russia. He later relocated to Vancouver, Wash., before coming to the Flathead Valley. He did not have any experience in the grocery business when he took over the Deli of Europe.

“I always wanted to own a store, and it was for sale,” he said. “It was a good opportunity — not many places sell European food.”

The closest store selling similar products is in Spokane, Shevtsov said.

Some of the food sold at the Deli of Europe — such as pierogies and sausages — is made in U.S. cities using European recipes, but much of the stock, as evidenced by the labels in Russian or other Slavic languages, comes directly from Europe.

The shelves are full of food that can’t be found in the average American chain grocery.

There are Eastern European variations of foods familiar to Americans — 60 kinds of sausage, bread from Latvia, tea from Poland, pickles made from European recipes, giant jars of whole tomatoes, sodas from the Ukraine and Russia (including one made from the syrup of birch trees) and candy from Poland, Russia and the Ukraine.

Foods sold in the deli that are more foreign to the American palate include whole smoked mackerel from Latvia, cans of beet salad and bags of halva, a confection made with sunflower seeds and honey. The store also carries red caviar.

The Deli of Europe offers a corner full of Eastern European medicinal remedies, handmade sweaters from Russia and Russian nesting dolls.

Shevtsov said many of his immigrant customers, who come from throughout Northwest Montana and Canada, are looking for the comfort of foods they grew up with.

“Lots of people are telling their friends about the store,” he said. “Every day we have new customers. Lots of local people who have never been in Europe, but like to try different stuff. They will buy one thing, and then come back and try something different.”

The merchandise currently fills an 800-square-foot space, and Shevtsov said he is looking for a bigger facility.

“We have the opportunity to buy more stuff, but we don’t have that much space right now,” he said.

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.