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Business & Tech

Pitted Against a Tough Economy, 'A Taste of Olive' Artfully Thrives

This Main Line business is offering Ardmore more than just olive oil.

In a brittle economy, finding a sweet spot for a small retail business is a tough thing to pull off.

But that appears to be exactly what mother-daughter proprietors Nancy Smith and Kimber Schladweiler have done after opening the doors to their third location in February 2011—bringing A Taste of Olive to the Main Line in downtown Ardmore.

With an established business profile and customer base, it was a natural fit to expand into the right spot, bringing their successful product mix of gourmet oils, vinegars, seasonings, spices, honeys, chutneys and gifts closer to those who patronize their other locales in West Chester and Haddonfield, N.J.

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Now, just nine months after opening on Lancaster Avenue, A Taste of Olive is preparing for its first holiday season on the Main Line with gifts and products for every pocketbook (so the owners say), a calendar of tasting events over the coming months, and a special focus on customer service.

A Taste of Olive specializes in imported olive oils and balsamic vinegars from both the northern and southern hemispheres, all tastefully packaged. The products are imported from small farmers in Greece, Italy, Spain, California, Chile and Argentina, explained Smith. They will also be offering both Moroccan and Israeli oils in the coming months. 

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“We try not to buy a new oil that’s at the end of its season,” she said. “So when the new crop is ready, it will come in.”

Call it the foodie equivalent of the old “We will sell no wine before its time” kind of marketing.

A niche retailer that's cementing an investment in their brand and in the community of Ardmore.

Working closely with her purveyors, Smith offers both fused and infused products.

The difference? When working with producers who sell fused products, herbs and flavors are pressed directly into the oils. Infused oils are flavored after the fact. “I like, whenever possible, fused and freshly pressed, because there’s a little more control over the flavor profile,” said Smith.

This fall, Smith is particularly excited about combinations like red apple or cinnamon-pear balsamic vinegars, which can be paired with a classic olive oil or French roasted walnut oil, she said. Or a fig-balsamic and blood orange olive oil combo—great for seasonal salads.

A Taste of Olive also offers a line of sea salts that are sold in bulk or house-packaged. There are a variety of honeys, too, like a blackberry-sage variety sourced from the Pacific Northwest, and a chestnut honey from Europe. The chutneys and simmers they sell come from closer to home in Pennsylvania.

’Tis the Seasonal

In time for Halloween and Thanksgiving, they have pumpkin pasta and a butternut squash pasta sauce. The owners also try to keep as many all-natural and organic products on the shelves as they can. In response to the needs of her customers, Smith plans to add gluten-free pasta to her offerings, as well as a locally sourced artisanal honey.

All of these items are available in-store and online. “We can do any price point from about $20 on up,” said Smith, who arranges custom gift baskets, business gifts and custom labels for businesses or private individuals.

Pre-packaged gift items run from $30 to $50 and include a small sampler pack of oils and vinegars, but they’ve recently been making larger baskets by request, which run about $400.

Smith’s clients have been her best advertisement, and as gift-giving increases, the receivers often end up as customers, she said.

Over the coming months, Smith and her daughter have been working on a series of tasting events for Ardmore. Private events have been popular in West Chester, and now they’re offering them to the public, teaching how to properly taste olive oil (another similarity to wine—the sophisticated palate) and vinegar. Part of the allure is their health properties, and how buyers can use them effectively in recipes.

“It gives [customers] an opportunity to learn and have fun experiencing the tasting,” said Smith.

A ‘Destination Location’

The original Taste of Olive location opened up in West Chester in 2008. At the time, both Smith and her daughter were working fulltime jobs; Smith in education, and Schladweiler as a full-time attorney.

“It’s more of a destination location,” explained Smith. Proximity to her daughter was a key to its operation, too—quality of product and quality of life. Following the opening of the first store, Smith has since retired from teaching, and Schladweiler has left her career as an attorney, giving her more flexibility and family time, something she was looking for all along.

The pair found more of what they wanted in Haddonfield in 2010, when a business recruiter for the area approached them and sold them on a good space in that upscale, family-oriented Camden County town with a bustling main drag, similar to West Chester.

The decision to move to the similarly walkable and affluent area of the Main Line—Ardmore—came about the same way. Recruiters from Lower Merion offered them what would be their latest location, another sign that Ardmore is an up-and-coming retail mecca.

 ”It took us a little longer to find what we were looking for on the Main Line,” said Smith. “We did end up purchasing the building here, so were here to stay.”

Cementing an investment in their brand and in the community of Ardmore also seems to be something of a mini-trend, or at the least a nice coincidence. Earlier this year, Patch (of the ) just around the corner on Ardmore Avenue, . 

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