If you’re lucky you’ve enjoyed an olive oil tasting with a house-made rosemary fougasse at Fig & Olive on Melrose Place before your meal. But WeHo has other fantastic olive oil experiences too.
Last week, I finally checked out the Oliana shop in the shopping center surrounding the Pavilions Marketplace at the northwest corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Robertson Blvd. I wish I had done so sooner, although my discovery is perfectly timed for the holiday season. This place is great.
Oliana carries more than 40 varieties of premium olive oils and vinegars sourced from Italy, Spain, Chile, California, Tunisia and Australia. You can taste them all thanks to the taster bottles and paper cups provided.
In addition, there are recipe cards throughout the store with ideas for using the products. There are even more recipes at the store’s website, including white chocolate and Persian lime olive oil fudge, olive oil zucchini and cranberry muffins, a weeknight poulet grand-mère, and even olive oil dog biscuits.
The Chilean Arbequina olive oil is a great choice for a purist — smooth, fruity and spicy. Flavored olive oils include such favorites as basil, lemon, truffle or herbes de provence, but also unique flavors like Persian lime, porcini mushroom or blood orange.
On the balsamic vinegar side there are the familiar plain, raspberry, or pomegranate flavors, but also really nice jalapeño, dark chocolate and espresso bean flavors. The espresso bean is really wonderful and would really dress up a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream into a company worthy dessert. The jalapeño vinegar mixed with the lemon olive oil also makes for a stellar salad dressing.
But don’t worry about having to navigate the overwhelming amount of choices on your own. The service is knowledgeable and friendly, and they’ll help you find what you’re looking for even if you’re not quite sure what that might be. They even have a big board with suggested combinations — like the basil olive oil with the black cherry vinegar, or the chipotle olive oil with red apple vinegar. Totally fun.
Anything from Oliana would make an amazing gift for a holiday party host or hostess, that foodie coworker or relative, or for anyone who eats salads and might want to vary the standard vinaigrette for a little more interest. Don’t forget, however, to pick something up for yourself — if you serve a vinaigrette made with these high quality oils and vinegars to your guests, you’ll make the plain salad you’re serving with dinner something really special and impressive. I cannot recommend this place enough.
They have small sample bottles for $7.95 (which can be combined into a gift box of six for $39.99), 200ml bottles are $19.95, 375ml bottles are $24.95 and large 750ml bottles are $44.95.
Oliana is located at 8951 Santa Monica Blvd., where it meets Robertson Blvd. and is open seven days a week. (310) 888-1874. You can also shop online at olianaoil.com.
Fig & Olive is located at 8490 Melrose Place, near La Cienega Blvd. Reservations can be made by calling (310) 360-9100 or online via the website figandolive.com.
