Corner stores: Strouk Group provides haven for gourmet crowd as it brings European flavor into Farmers Market with high-end grocery store, wine and cheese bar. (Small Business).

STEPHANE Strouk remembers the day in 1993 when he opened his tiny creperie stand at the historic Farmers Market.

By the time he had finished buying equipment and leasing a speck of space for French Creperie Co., he and his wife Katy, had $3 left between them that first morning.

"My wife cried when I told her how much we had left in our bank account," remembered Strouk. "We came in at 6 a.m. to prepare all the food and worked until 9 p.m. that night. She was exhausted. I was exhausted. I took home our day's take in a white paper bag and started counting it that night. We had $400 after one day. That gave us hope."

Starting with a single stand that occupied 115 square feet, his company, now called The Strouk Group, has 15,000 square feet of the 69-year-old Farmers Market. where a maze of stalls provide most every kind of ethnic food and which remains a popular destination for tourists and locals.

Strouk's merchandise seems a bit out of place in a market known more for its deli sandwiches and Mexican combination platters. But with the adjacent Grove at Farmers Market attracting a higher-end crowd, Strouk figures it's not such a large leap to be stocking foie gras and serrano ham.

Last month, he opened Mr. Marcel Gourmet Market, a specialty food store stocked with 250 kinds of cheeses, 350 kinds of wines, and dozens of varieties of olives, gourmet marmalades, mustards, sauces, and meat.

Across from the market, Strouk has opened a gourmet wine and cheese bar called Mr. Marcel Pain, vin et Fromage (Bread, Wine and Cheese), where French wines by the glass range from $3.79 for Mr. Marcel sauvignon blanc to $14.29 for the Chateauneuf du Pape. Plates of cheese, meats and various hot dishes also are available.

"I knew I needed the Nordstrom customer to make my store grow," he said. A few upscale customers are slowly discovering the place as they wander in looking for things like onion jam, but many still don't know he exists. "We need to advertise more and get more signs up."

European feel

Strouk, who had worked in France as a salesman for Xerox Corp., first visited the United States in 1989 (his wife, then his girlfriend in Paris, was from Newport Beach). He quickly became excited at the opportunities available to an entrepreneur in this country--and he especially liked the Farmers Market.

"French people like to see and feel their groceries. And the Farmers Market lets you do that. So when I came here I decided the Farmers Market would become my grocery store," said the 36-year-old Strouk, who still has a strong French accent.

Upon emigrating to the U.S. in early 1993, he decided that the Farmers Market would be an ideal place for a creperie.

Crepes, it turns out, were in Strouk's blood. At one time his mother had the concessions to 11 creperie stands in front of 11 Parisian cafes where a teen-aged Strouk sometimes worked on Sundays to earn extra money.

Strouk took $16,000 in savings and an $8,000 loan from his father. It proved so successful, Strouk said, that he was asked by Farmers Market owner A.F. Gilmore Co. to manage a small deli and cheese shop.

He was planning to run the shop under its original name, the Farmers Market Deli. But as a joke on his father, Marcel, who hates cheese, made up a sign that said Mr. Marcel Cheese Shop. He snapped a photo to send to his father in Paris.

Hank Hilty Jr., president of Gilmore, walked by and liked the name. It stuck. The shop carries such hard-to-find items as Tete de Moine from Switzerland and Tomme de Savoie from France.

Then in 1995, Strouk, a big fan of Italian food, opened Lulu Panini, named after his mother. In 1999, he sold the business to French actor Christopher Lambert so he could buy a duplex.

About this time, he also began managing the Farmers Market Grocery Store, also run by the A.F. Gilmore Co., which asked Strouk to step in.

With $700,000 in capital, nearly half of it from a Small Business Administration loan and the sale of his grandfather's antique watch collection, he overhauled the corner grocery store into a gourmet market.

He also tore down Mr. Marcel Cheese Shop, transferring the 250 kinds of cheeses to the gourmet market, and adding the wine and cheese tasting bar.

In one corner of the market is The Olive Shop at Monsieur Marcel, which sells jars of gourmet olives, bottles of olive oil and colorful Provence tablecloths from the south of France.

"Not many people have old Amsterdam aged gouda and aged provolone;' said Holmes Penn, a regular patron. "When Stephane has a cheeseman, he's a cheeseman who actually knows something about cheeses."

Molly Le Bell and her friends who meet regularly at the Farmers Market for lunch not only like the cheese selection but Strouk's brand of customer service. "If you come back and say, 'I don't like this cheese,' he'll let you return it," she said. "Not many people will do that."

RELATED ARTICLE: PROFILE

Strouk Group

Year Founded: 1993

Core Business: Food and wine products

Revenues in 2002: $1.4 million

Revenues in 2003: $2.5 million (projected)

Employees in 2001: 12

Employees in 2002: 22

Goal: To boost revenues to $3.6 million in two years and open a creperie and gourmet grocery store in Pasadena.

Driving Force: Customers who want a wide selection of gourmet goods not found in other food markets.