A little taste of the world.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Julie Lenox-Sharifi knew her new Mediterranean and Middle Eastern grocery was heading in the right direction when an Old World Italian customer told her a story about sewing capers into her brassiere to smuggle them into the United States.

The elderly woman grew up cooking with capers that were salted, giving them a crispness that's lacking in those pickled with brine. But the woman hadn't been able to find salted capers in the United States - until she happened onto them at Pomegranates, the store Lenox-Sharifi and her husband, Bobby Sharifi, opened a month ago at 2833 Willamette St., Suite F, in south Eugene.

"That's what I want to do, is see people's memories come alive," says Lenox-Sharifi, who has stocked her 500-square-foot market with an eclectic assortment of Italian, Spanish, Mediterranean, Persian and Arab foods.

There are staples such as couscous and pasta - pressed with bronze rather than Teflon dies, to improve texture - along with specialty items including regional olive oils, Middle Eastern spices and gourmet snacks. Everything from torshi, or Persian pickled specialties, to ingredients for the rice-based Spanish dish paella, from tahini to saffron.

"It's a combination of the best-of, and things people are familiar with already," Lenox-Sharifi says.

The store sold three cases of pomegranate paste - a syrup with the consistency of molasses - after Oprah Winfrey shared a recipe for pomegranate margaritas a couple weeks before Christmas.

"We try to focus on variety, rather than the depth of products," Bobby Sharifi says.

While Sharifi is responsible for the store's heritage - his family emigrated from Iran in 1985 - his wife lays claim to connecting the cultural dots of their new business.

The couple chose its name, for instance, after she learned that ancient Persians were the first to cultivate pomegranates, and that the Persians' reach can be traced by mapping areas of the world where the seedy fruit grows wild today. Lenox-Sharifi says the Persians took pomegranates with them into Spain and other parts of southern Europe, and from there they spread to Florida and other areas of the New World.

"I'm the historian," she says. `I've gotten into the Persian thing, and then being a `foody' at the same time...'

The idea that started as an ethnic spice shop quickly became a full-line market.

Ibrahim Hamide, a Eugene restaurateur who came to the United States from Palestine in 1969, says he hasn't yet visited the new store but believes there is demand in Eugene-Springfield for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods.

Hamide owns Cafe Soriah on West 13th Avenue and Casablanca in the Fifth Street Public Market.

"When I started Casablanca, way back in 1981, I had a grocery section - in fact, it started out as a Middle Eastern store," Hamide says. `The (prepared) food was really a side issue for me at the time ... and then the little deli took over. But there was, even then, that demand (for grocery items).'

Hamide points out that there are other local sources for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern ingredients, including The Kiva in downtown Eugene and Plaza Latina on West Seventh - where two aisles are devoted to Middle Eastern items.

"I don't know if we have enough demand for two stores, but they are in varying parts of town," Hamide says, comparing Pomegranates and Plaza Latina. "It may work."

Pomegranates' owners say their concept already seems to have caught on, even surpassing their sales projections for the first month in business.

"I had a really strong feeling we'd be successful," Lenox-Sharifi says. "And I think a lot of your success has to do with your state of mind."

She and her husband met in Los Angeles, where they lived in that city's "Little Tehran" before moving to San Francisco. After seven years in the Bay Area, they moved to Eugene four years ago.

"We moved here because we didn't want to live in California anymore," Sharifi says. "I love it; I can't imagine living anywhere else."

The couple both worked as managers in the Starbucks coffee chain, in California and Eugene, and Sharifi has since begun investing in real estate.

His wife took a business start-up class through Lane Community College, then the couple found the storefront available for lease directly across Oak Street from the Southtowne Shoppes.

Sharifi declines to discuss specific figures related to the business, but says he and his wife were able to get up and running for the cost of their inventory, a few pieces of equipment and a little sprucing up.

The shop is small, but Lenox-Sharifi says she took the approach of a larger player in shopping for merchandise. She has been able to keep her prices reasonable - the highest-priced product is a 25-ounce bottle of olive oil for $28 - by buying directly from importers rather than distributors.

"I didn't let the footprint of my store be a factor in what we're doing," she says.

The store is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

POMEGRANATES MEDITERRANEAN & MIDDLE EASTERN GROCERY New business across Oak Street from south Eugene's Southtowne Shoppes Owners: Julie Lenox-Sharifi and Bobby Sharifi Address: 2833 Willamette St., Suite F Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday Inventory: Italian, Spanish, Mediterranean, Persian and Arab food items

Joe Mosley can be reached at 338-2384 or jmosley@ guardnet.com.