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32 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY FEBRUARY 2008 WWW.FOODSERVICEWORLD.COM

Twenty-six years after opening a restaurant,Peter Eliopoulos has built an entertainment empireBy ROSANNA CAIRA • Photographed by MARGARET MULLIGAN

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Peter Eliopoulos has always loved agood party. As a teenager growing upin Toronto, he was uninspired byacademic life. Having worked in hisuncle’s Greek restaurant after arriv-ing with his family from Greece atthe age of 12, he was more drawn tothe energy of the social scene thanschool. Ever the entrepreneur, by hisearly teens Eliopoulos was running hisown business, taking on paper routesfor the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mailand the Toronto Telegram. With a flairfor salesmanship, by 17 he was sellingtickets to Hellenic Association dances,bringing together young adults to cel-ebrate their Greek heritage and havea good time. It was the beginning ofhis love affair with party planning.

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After begrudgingly completing a business program atSeneca College, Eliopoulos met and married his wife Anna.With her help he purchased and ran his first eatery, Paul’s FineFoods, a restaurant-cum-bakery located on the border ofToronto and York Region. Fuelled by a strong work ethic and adesire to succeed, they renamed it Peter and Paul’s and it blos-somed into a profitable business, eventually spawning successfulcatering and gift basket divisions. Twenty-six-years later,Eliopoulos heads an empire boasting nine different conceptsgrossing $25 million in annual sales. During that time, he sayshis company has hosted over 66,000 parties for more than fivemillion guests, with events ranging from black-tie galas to holi-day parties, seminars and meetings.

Though he’s worked hard to achieve a reputation for creativeapproaches to food (his company was the first to offer antipas-to bars and dessert stations in banquets and catering), forEliopoulos, being a successful caterer is about more than justgood eats — it’s about creating magical memories and a totalexperience. With boundless energy and charisma, people aredrawn to him like a magnet. “I’m not in the food business,”declares the 52-year-old father of three daughters — Katherine,Angela and Nicole. “I’m in the entertainment business. Anyonecan cook food, but I put the whole thing together.”

He’s not kidding. His company, byPeterandPauls.com, is aone-stop event emporium. In addition to running two posh ban-quet halls, Paramount and Bellagio, Eliopoulos also owns TheManor in Kettleby, Ont.; Peter and Paul’s Baskets and Gifts;Table Talk off-premise catering; S4 Show Solutions, providingcreative ideas and DJ entertainment; Colleli Studios, offeringon-site photography for any event; 326 Pump, a juice and ener-gy bar located in Extreme Fitness; and Search Engine, the com-pany’s own advertising and design service.

The synergies created by having so many varied servicesunder one umbrella make it convenient for guests to do busi-ness with the company. “It’s one team, one vision and onesuccess,” says Eliopoulos. Though each division is run inde-pendently, they all feed off one another, a fact quickly evi-dent when you walk through the doors of the company’shead office in Vaughan. From the outside, the 23,000-sq. ft.structure looks like any commercial building dotting the Janeand Langstaff corridor. But upon entering the space, whichalso houses the showroom for the gift basket division, cus-tomers are bombarded by eye candy — stacks of baskets fea-turing the finest food products from around the world arecrammed into every inch of space. It’s here that staff busilyprepare orders, including those from retail giants Canadian

{THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT: Among their varied busi-ness interests, Anna and Peter Eliopoulos, shown(above middle) in costume at the Venetian Ball, ownand operate a trio of event venues including theBellagio (above left), the ultra-modern Paramount inWoodbridge, Ont. (above right), and the Manor inKing City, Ont. (left).

Tire, Costco and Shoppers Drug Mart.Beyond the showroom, the main reception area gives cus-

tomers a sampling of what the company offers. Sparkling taffe-ta tablecloths sit atop tables, highlighting different place settingsthat can be chosen by prospective brides, while a huge flat-screen TV belts out Michael Bublé concert footage, showcasingthe company’s impressive high-tech gear. At the back of thebuilding, millions of dollars worth of sophisticated audio-visualequipment is stored, used to stage elaborate affairs rangingfrom weddings to conferences.

Each of the company’s facilities is located close to its headoffice. Eliopoulos’ splashiest new venue is the ultra-modernParamount, featuring five function rooms for wowing up to1,650 guests. It’s equipped with live-eye cameras, image scan-ners and LCD monitors, as well as mammoth lighting systems.At 63,000 sq. ft. it’s the largest event venue in Woodbridge andone of the GTA’s biggest.

Also a stone’s throw from head office is Bellagio. ItsItalianate decor serves up a more traditional banquet setting inthree non-portioned rooms with seating for 800. And a fewyears ago, the company added additional banquet capacitywhen it assumed control of The Manor, a 34,000-sq. ft. facili-ty housing three halls and accommodating up to 950 guests, setamongst the lush greenery of nearby King City’s Carrying PlaceGolf and Country Club.

While the banquet business represents a significant chunk ofrevenues, no one could have predicted the success of its giftbasket division, run by Anna. It’s hard to believe the $5-million-

‘‘ ‘‘There’snothingbetter thanhavingpeople cometogetherto celebratelife

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a-year business, the biggest in Canada, grew from a small cornerin the couple’s original restaurant. “Customers used to ask us topackage the Lindt chocolates we sold in our restaurant and itgrew from there,” she says. Today, Anna travels the world look-ing for fantastic food items and her daughter Katherine helps runthe business (daughter Angela works as Eliopoulos’ assistant,while youngest daughter Nicole attends Concordia University inMontreal).

Over the years the baskets division has evolved and its offer-ings have become more sophisticated. “We’re unique because weoffer reusable containers and themed products with logos,”explains Anna. As a natural extension for its catering clients theyalso sell bonbonniere (mementos couples give to guests attendingtheir wedding). “Over 1,000 brides have come through our ven-ues so we thought why not service them as well?” This year, Annaplans to expand the business by creating promotional and closinggifts for companies such as condo developer Tridel, to give tooccupants when they move into their new place.

Spending time with the dynamic trailblazer and his down-to-earth, charming wife, it’s clear they feed off one another andtheir business is a labour of love. “I love what I do,” saysEliopoulos. “I can’t wait to get up at five in the morning and getinto work. I’m here seven days a week,” he says, his eyes twin-kling with excitement.

With 60 full-time and 600 part-time employees, Eliopoulosinstills in them a love of details, a passion for work and a sense offun and adventure. “I’m amazed by the attention to detail,” saysGeorge Tsioutsioulas, director of Communications. “In fact, thedetails have details,” he quips.

Eliopoulos keeps staff motivated by creating zany contestsand promotions. He launched a company-wide reality-show-stylecontest, which ran from November to January. Each divisioncompeted against one another with the winners taking $15,000in prize money. “For the past three months, we’ve been shoot-ing videos of everything that goes on in the company,” saysEliopoulos. “We want to see how staff is dressed, the cleanlinessof the washrooms, how the building looks from the outside.We’ve had phenomenal feedback from them. It’s all about moti-vation.”

He also takes staff on cruises, trips to Greece and buys themunique gifts at Christmas. “This is one of the hardest businessesto run,” he says. “But if you look after someone, they’ll comeback. It’s always about service, service, service.”

To ensure employees have the tools to succeed, training is apriority. “You can never have enough training for your staff,” hesays. The company recently hired an internal affairs manager,whose mandate is to produce training manuals and videos on avariety of aspects of banquet service.

Eliopoulos also understands the power of promotion. His com-pany has hosted several wedding giveaways at the Toronto BridalShow (valued between $15,000 and $30,000). It’s also partneredwith local radio station Z103 to promote Dream Wedding contestsby providing the winning couple with an event venue courtesy ofbyPeterandPauls.com, and it has taken part in reality TV showssuch as I Do…Let’s Eat and Adventures in Catering.

When he’s not coming up with new ideas for the business,

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Eliopoulos gives back to the community. His company’s annualCare for Kids Golf Classic at the Manor Carrying Place hasraised more than $800,000 for Toronto’s Sick Kids’ Hospital.In 2006, he and his wife chaired the Venetian Ball, and brokea record by raising more than $500,000 for Villa Charities.And every year on Earth Day the entire company spends a dayin the sun giving back to Mother Nature by planting trees andcollecting litter.

At an age when many are contemplating early retirement,Eliopoulos is driven to spread his own gospel around the world.These days he goes back to Greece as often as possible, tend-ing to his organic farm. He produces olive oil from his family’sown olive groves, which he smartly markets as “My Mother’sOlive Oil,” and sells through the gift basket division.

But the project that has him most excited is the new exclu-sive village resort he’s building in Greece, featuring a spa, golf

course and horse trails. Originally Eliopoulos set out to build St.Peter and Paul’s church, which he did — it opened two yearsago as fulfillment of a promise he made in the late 1980s whenbusiness was bad and he was going through personal challenges— but the resort project grew from that and took on a life of itsown. He’s hoping to create a destination where couples can getmarried like they used to 100 years ago, but with “a modernand exclusive touch.” If he succeeds, he’ll replicate the idea inCanada and other countries.

But at the end of the day, it’s all about passion and fun.“That was my motivation 26 years ago when I started andthat’s what keeps me going,” says Eliopoulos. “There’s noth-ing better than having people come together to celebrate life.As creative director, it’s important for me to keep pushing theboundaries of convention. That’s how you make discoveries,by going off the main road, by trying the untried.” ❑

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