Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004 | 8:11 a.m.
There's Raspberry saft on the table "Have some" and hot coffee behind the counter. The lace drapes, woodlike flooring and wall stencils celebrate traditional Swedish decor.
Viking-inspired necklaces are sold alongside Finnish earings. Trolls in little Norwegian sweaters sit next to lanterns from Karlskrona.
Scandinavian candy is abundant. Recipes are free.
But be prepared to chat while browsing. Scandinavian Styles, a small boutique on South Eastern Avenue, is as much a meeting place for transplanted Scandinavians as it is a specialty store selling Danish marmalade and Norwegian lefse.
A bulletin board lists local groups and messages. Swedish store owner Hans Ahren might ask you where you are from or tell you a story. He's even been known to waltz with a customer.
Scandinavian-Americans tout the store as a welcomed rarity in an area where chain stores and franchise restaurants heavily outweigh small businesses catering to niche markets.
Through Ahren, lonely Danes have met, American-born Swedes and the Norwegians have learned more about their culture. The Johansons, Engelharts and Olsons of Nevada have signed on for monthly newsletters.
"We had a party here in May," said Ahren, 46, who on this day was not wearing his wooden clogs, but had them sitting behind the counter. "We had caviar, champagne. Dancing outside spontaneously. We had all the old songs.
"We had Danes. Finns, Norwegians, Swedes.
I believe we had some Russians and Poles. They came because I had herring ... The last ones who left were four Finns. They didn't want to go home. We ended up sitting out front here on chairs and talking."
The store has its quiet days. Plenty of them. But word spreads quickly among the like-minded.
More than 650 customers are on Ahren's mailing list. Vegas Viking Lodge (the local chapter of the Sons of Norway), Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA) and the Swedish Vahalla Lodge, the local chapter for the Vasa Order of America, are supporting his efforts.
Else Schuster, a 30-year Las Vegas resident (originally from Moss, Norway), buys Norwegian goat cheese, chocolates and Norwegian mayonnaise.
Louise Mishel, president of SWEA Las Vegas, has sent her husband to the store for candy, decorative candle rings and Swedish sausage.
"We are overwhelmed that a dream we have thought of for years and years and years has come true," said Inga-Britt Barnes, a longtime Las Vegas resident and member of SWEA Las Vegas and Vahalla, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year.
"I remember when we were a few Swedish girls meeting 30 to 35 years ago in this town and saying we should open a Swedish bakery. We even talked about importing certain things, Swedish household items.
"To not have to go to Los Angeles to pick up herring and lingonberries. It is tremendous."
Scandinavian social
Ahren contacted local Scandinavian groups when he opened the store. For those who hadn't heard, the tre kronors (three yellow crowns) on its small blue marquee have been an eye-catcher.
"I was just driving by and saw the sign," said Henderson resident Julie Cain, who is half Swedish and half Pennsylvania Dutch.
Cain brought her neighbor Donna Haines, who is half Swedish and half Irish.
While loading up on pumpernickel and herring, Haines eyed the lefse in the refrigerator and said, "We always had lefse on Christmas. My grandma always made lutefisk."
The store is stocked with Swedish cooked crayfish, smoked herring pate, three kinds of caviar and seven kinds of herring. Ahren sells dalahorses, clogs, crystal gifts, oil lamps, candles and napkins.
"We're planning all of our Christmas things," Ahren said, as he pointed to an opened catalogue of traditional Christmas decorations (made from straw and red ribbon), dala napkin holders, woodwork and candlestick holders.
"It's going to be very old-fashioned Scandinavian Christmas."
Christmas will be the test. Ahren has given himself one year to see if he can succeed in running the first Scandinavian store in an area where there isn't even an IKEA.
There are plenty of Scandinavians living in Southern Nevada. Vegas Viking has roughly 150 members, faithfully celebrates its Juletree fest and holds an annual Leif Ericson dinner. Its lutefisk dinner is a sellout each year, and member Lollo Sievert occasionally teaches lefse-making.
Vahalla Lodge, with 75 paid members and nearly 200 on its mailing list, celebrates midsummer and Santa Lucia each year.
"It has evolved here so that we don't just have Swedish members," said Evy Hannelius, cultural leader of the lodge. "There are other members -- Danish, Finnish. I believe we have one Icelandic member."
Hannelius remembers a local Danish group that was active when she moved to Las Vegas. The group has since disbanded, and in Ahren's store there is a message on the bulletin board from a Dane looking to start a Danish brotherhood.
Culture club
Catering to four different nationalities and nostalgic customers can be a challenge.
"The difficult part is to find out what people want," Ahren said. "In one newsletter I announced I had lefse. One lady came in and bought the whole box. I had to rush another order."
A Finnish woman bought nine of the 10 Finnish-American license plate frames Ahren had ordered.
But the store is a welcomed change from the stress of the shipping business, where Ahren, a former ship broker who for 24 years had his own shipping company that worked with oil tankers in Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and all of the Black Sea countries.
"You have so much money at stake," said Ahren, who moved to the states six years ago with his American wife, Connie. "You wake up in the morning and get a phone call from a captain saying, 'There's a problem.' You just crumble."
As the sole employee at Scandinavian Styles, Ahren visits with customers -- Scandinavian or not -- about August crayfish parties, midsummer or the pair of 250-year-old skis mounted on the wall next to a sign that reads, "Are these King Gustav Vasa's skis?"
"I meet so many nice people," Ahren said. "And I've met people from my past. On Saturday an elderly gentleman came in. He used to be a pop singer in Sweden when I was a teen. Now he lives here and he walked in the store.
"I had one lady in here whose father invented the canned hot dog. I lived on that in college. I have some customers who come in and know each other. Sometimes they have coffee."
And there's always dancing.
"One lady who was in with her husband asked, 'Do you know how to dance waltz?' " Ahren said. "I said, 'Of course, I'm Swedish.' We danced around the store."
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