Spinellis Moving On; Moutzouris Moving In
New Owners Vow To Keep The Old Traditions Alive
By Erin Vanderberg
On April 12, Mary Ellen and Jerry Spinelli stepped down from the helm at Spinelli’s Market after 20 years. While the sale is bittersweet for the Park Hill icons, they are confident that their market is in good hands with brothers John and Ted Moutzouris, who grew up in the grocery business at their family store, Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables in the Hilltop neighborhood south of Park Hill.
Mary Ellen and Jerry keep telling the many customers who have come to say their goodbyes, “It’s all good.”
The Beginning
“Instead of buying a Harley Davidson for our mid-life crisis, we bought a grocery store.” – Mary Ellen Spinelli
In 1994, when the Spinellis bought the Park Hill Super Market and Deli at 4621 E. 23rd Ave., Mary Ellen and Jerry were in their mid-40s. Their two children, Adrienne and Edward, were teenagers. Their idea was to create a place similar to those from the nearby Kearney Street of Mary Ellen’s youth — a place where neighbors could come together, talk and make memories.
But turning that vision into a reality was real work. Mary Ellen first saw the store on a Memorial Day weekend. It was oppressively hot inside — no blinds, no air conditioning, the scarce chocolate in stock melting on the shelves. Outside, there were bars on the window and a woman using the payphone out front to call the police to make a complaint about the owner. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Hello! What are we going to do here?’” says Mary Ellen.
Jerry says, graciously, that the previous owners didn’t know much about rotating stock. Mary Ellen is more to the point: “It was a haven for nefarious activities.” In the early days, they both remember strange requests from customers for items formerly sold at the store.
The Spinellis built their inventory by determining what they would want and need in a neighborhood store. They created a small produce display and offered Italian sausage. “We might not have two varieties,” said Mary Ellen, “but we had one.” The sign hung on the bars read, “Produce, Pasta and More.”
After a year or so, they took the bars off the windows. People were concerned. “Aren’t you afraid?” they asked. “Of what?” responded Mary Ellen, “I live here.”
Becoming a Park Hill institution
A lot of people tell us — and it’s so flattering to hear — you really made our neighborhood. But the neighborhood has really been really great to us. – Jerry Spinelli
Jerry credits luck in playing a role in Spinelli’s success. “Our lucky strike when we came over here was that it was the beginning of the Italian food revolution, I guess you’d call it,” he says. “You could go to a lot of stores and get what I have here, but you didn’t get the same flavor.”
He makes light of the hard work that put the store on the map. “We just opened our mouths and started smiling and it was instantaneous,” he laughs. But he says it was two years before the store really started to be embraced by the neighborhood.
It helped that a neighbor on Cherry Street distributed a letter to his fellow neighbors introducing them to the market. He let them know that the Spinellis were really trying to make something of the place, and told his neighbors that it would behoove them to support their efforts.
And they did. Jerry pulled up one morning — before the days you could simply call the city to have graffiti removed — to the sight of neighbors scrubbing spray paint off all the 23rd Avenue storefronts. A while later, he and Mary Ellen were delighted when the neighborhood threw them a surprise picnic in their honor at W.H. Ferguson (Turtle) Park, holding a banner that read “Park Hill Loves Spinelli’s Market.” The Spinellis co-opted the picnic idea and have thrown an annual end-of-summer picnic ever since.
It’s a tradition that new owner John Moutzouris says that he intends to keep.
The new owners
“We’re proud to say that we’re at Spinelli’s now.” – John Moutzouris
The Moutzouris Brothers — John, 36, and Ted, 35 — grew up working in their father’s grocery store, Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables in the Hilltop/Crestmoor neighborhood. Like the Spinellis’ kids, Adrienne and Edward, they know all about eating the bruised fruit that comes home from the market – and the pride in the family business.
Their father, Pete Moutzouris, opened his market 30 years ago when it went up for sale in their neighborhood, after working for years laying carpet. Their mother Voula ran their household. Pete had very little experience in the produce business, besides in the old country, but he learned as he went. John jokes that his father was the only Greek he knows not to go into the restaurant business in Denver.
On Pete’s first day as a grocer, he didn’t understand what a customer was asking when she wondered whether the grapes were “seedless.” She returned a few hours later, and threw the seeded grapes at him, yelling that her kids had almost choked. He didn’t make that mistake again, and she is still a customer today.
John says that Pete will never retire, just as Jerry and Mary Ellen haven’t really either — they’ll still manage and develop new recipes for their Spinelli’s Sauce Company. Pete works at his market seven hours a day, seven days a week. “My dad is the hardest working guy,” says John. “The store is his life.”
John and Ted have always worked alongside their father at the market, and now plan to alternate their weeks at Spinelli’s so there is always a brother at each location. They also run the Mythos Gourmet Greek Food Truck, and are considering parking it at 23rd and Dexter on Mondays — a day the Cherry Tomato restaurant on the corner is closed — as an alternate for the Spinelli’s Monday Night Dinner.
John’s wife, Jackie, a Denver native like the Moutzouris, is part of the family that runs the La Fogata chain of restaurants. John and Jackie have a new baby girl, Penelope, born last October.
A shared passion
“It’s helping people not to freak out knowing that Spinelli’s is going to another local grocer.” – John Moutzouris
When the Spinelli’s met the Moutzouris, their two-year search for owners who would carry on their legacy ended. “We had a lot of different people interested in the store, but they didn’t get it,” says Mary Ellen. “John and Ted have grown up in the grocery business. They are a perfect fit.”
The Spinellis and Moutzouris realized that not only did they have the comfort of knowing each other, each other’s families, and the same vendors and customers already, but that they share the same philosophy about what they do.
“It’s more than having milk,” says Mary Ellen of owning a neighborhood grocery. “It’s connection, it’s being out there for your community, it’s commitment … it’s just like a friendship.”
“Everyone tells me I have large shoes to fill,” says John.
John and Ted have incorporated their new business as Denver Independent Grocer, LLC. It’s a source of pride to them owning what they consider to be East Denver’s classic neighborhood markets.
To John and Ted, personality is what defines a neighborhood market. A large grocer doesn’t give you a free meal because you’ve had a baby. A small grocer can get to know you, can offer you a credit system so that your kids didn’t have to fumble with money. Neither his father or Jerry has ever turned someone away for forgetting a wallet. Jerry says he has always been able to trust his customers to honor their word: “Never a problem. Never ever, not one time.”
John and Ted are interested in initially keeping things the same way, and then instituting only gradual changes, like bumping up the produce supply. Originally, they thought they wanted to update the floors, but the store’s charm has changed their mind – and it reminds them of what Pete’s used to look like. Now, the only renovation planned is to swap out the produce coolers for more energy efficient models.
While some of the dinners might have some new Greek inspiration, John and Ted want to keep the market the way it is: Italian.
The same goes for the staff, no changes. Store manager Kelsey King, in particular. “She is my savior — and John’s too,” says Mary Ellen. The Spinellis call her “The Tornado.” John says that the first day he worked with her, he didn’t believe the hype, but then he watched her get everything done, five things at a time. “She is super valuable,” says John, “I can’t even put words on it, and I’ve only been here two weeks.”
Looking back
“We’re not pretty, but we’re real.” – Mary Ellen Spinelli
Mary Ellen and Jerry are quick to recite the memories they’ll carry. The young man who gave up Spinelli’s for Lent. The post-9/11 Neighborhood Picnic and the camaraderie it provided. The meals they’ve been able to provide new parents. The slow food meetings.
Mary Ellen measures their success through the friendships they’ve made. “It’s being included in people’s lives and including them in yours — that’s success. If people love you and you love them, you did good.”
For Jerry, whose mantra is “miles of smiles,” success is measured by the fun they had. “Young people ask me how I work with my wife,” says Jerry. “I give ‘em that famous ‘Yes, Dear’ line, but truly it’s smiling and laughing with each other. You just can’t get really serious. It’s just money, you know. You have to keep a smile on your face.”
Erin Vanderberg is a former editor of the Greater Park Hill News. Spinelli’s Market can be reached by phone at (303) 329-8143. Online at spinellismarket.com. And don’t forget Jerry’s sauce, online at spinellissauceco.com.