Mellos took over the business, expanding into the health food industry with trail mix and other products. Along the way, he lost his childhood Greek language skills when a teacher told his parents to focus on English. He grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, did not attend church regularly and married a non-Greek woman from Oklahoma.
But his wife, Donna, chose to be baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church and drew Mellos back to his roots. He learned Greek dancing for the first time because she wanted to have it at their wedding, he said. The couple attend Bible study classes and have toured Greece and other important Eastern Orthodox sites with Bakas.
"My wife has made me more Greek," Mellos said. "It's important for everyone to hang on to the best their culture has to offer."
His family's historic Picoulas nut business continues to thrive on Towne Avenue downtown. The whitewashed building is the last of the old Greek Town properties still in the hands of the original family owners. It features the original lettering, "Gust Picoulas & Co.," and still contains old roasting equipment, photos of the original pioneer and 1912 ledgers filled with elaborate cursive writing of old.
But the business itself is now owned by Thomas Lee, a Seoul native who left his homeland in 1969 at age 20 to seek the same fortunes that lured Picoulas from Greece more than six decades earlier. Lee has added Korean wedding dolls to the office decor and repackaged the products under his own brand, Naturalee, but likes the Picoulas name on the building "because it's so old."
For Mellos, the evolution of his family business reflects the essence of Los Angeles.
"One immigrant group has handed over the baton to another immigrant group," Mellos said. "It's symbolic of the growth and diversity of Los Angeles."
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teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
