Culinary Creative: Canton Importing

There are two things you need to know immediately when you enter Canton Importing.

First: If you come for the feta, ask for the feta “from the back.”

The barrel-aged variety is their No. 1 best-selling item. Almost anyone who’s had it from the 65-year-old international grocery store will tell you that all other feta pales in comparison.

Second: Customers are like family.

“That’s the Greek way — you treat people like family all the time, and there’s an openness, an intimacy and a closeness,” says co-owner Maria Varonis, who has Greek heritage.

In February, Varonis and her husband, Justin Seeker, purchased Canton Importing from its longtime Greek owners. The decision stemmed from a lifelong love for food and creativity.

For decades, Varonis shopped at Canton Importing alongside her parents, Orestes and Litsa. For nearly every holiday feast and special occasion, they’d come to purchase olives, fresh deli meats, cheeses and other Greek treats and accoutrements.

“Canton Importing always had this really powerful energy during my childhood,” says Varonis, whose background was primarily in marketing and creative writing. “We really wanted to keep that energy going.”

They’ve stayed true to some of Canton Importing’s longstanding traditions.

As a wholesaler, its ingredients are used to create best sellers at several local restaurants — in the lamb burger and fried feta at Canton’s Desert Inn and the Danish blue cheese used as a steak topping at Ken Stewart’s Grille in Akron. Imported olives, meats and cheeses from Greece and Italy have remained top sellers.

Canton Importing also continues to be a boon for local bakers. Angie Gaitanos, owner of Fournos Crafted by Angie, sells focaccia bread every Friday at the store. Each one undergoes a 12-hour fermentation process and is crowned with vibrant onions, peppers and other seasonal vegetables.

“Maria and Justin provide whatever I need to make my creations, including spices I can’t find anywhere else,” says Gaitanos. “I use mahlepi in pastries and Easter bread. I also use whipped feta in the focaccia.”

Varonis and Seeker have expanded Middle Eastern favorites to carry a number of newer items like creamy labneh and string cheese with caraway seeds. They also added Greek offerings such as kritamo (pickled sea fennel) and Papadopoulos cookies.

“We want people to walk into the store and feel they’re represented,” says Varonis. “If you see a specialty item that … reminds you of home or summers with your family overseas, that’s going to elicit feelings you can’t find anywhere else.”

Seeker is a woodworker who’s created custom charcuterie boards, pizza cutters, ice cream scoops and bottle openers. Big sellers are pizelle irons and small olive wood bowls — sourced from overseas — to hold salt from the Aegean sea. These items sit on shelves alongside an abundance of international cookbooks, olive oils and Greek skin care products made with mastiha, a rare resin that comes from mastic trees that only grow on the Greek island of Chios, where Varonis’ family originates.

For next year, she’s planning interactive experiences.

On the agenda: cooking classes and workshops where customers can make and bake baklava or learn how to roll grape leaves using products bought in the store.

Every Friday, shoppers get to experience what Varonis has dubbed “Briki Friday.” Named after the traditional small pot used to make Greek or Turkish coffee, shoppers get to have a conversation with Litsa as she pours them a cup. While they talk about life, love and food, shoppers can try samples of traditional Greek dishes like spanakopita, a savory Greek spinach pie, or fanouropita, an olive oil citrus cake — all made with ingredients from Canton Importing’s stock.

“We’re really thinking about the user experience and how people like to shop,” says Varonis. “We run this business on vibes, and we want you to feel good when you’re here.”

1136 Wertz Ave. NW, Canton, 330-452-9351, cantonimporting.com