Olive Oil

[MikeLM]

Most of the Williams-Sonoma stores I've been in offer olive oil tasting bars with bread. I've wound up using Trader Joe's house brand "First Lady Reserve" unfiltered Italian EVOO which is very reasonably priced.

Speaking of TJ's, we were in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago visiting our daughter when the first TJ in that city opened. It was on a Friday, and we went over (it's not very close to my daughter's house) the next day... we literally couldn't get in, it was so crowded. We spoke the other day to the manager of a local TJ's and she said the Pbgh store opening has been the most successful they've ever had. Owing to PA liquor control laws, they can't even sell beer and wine, so no 2-buck Chuck.

There has been virtually NO supermarket competition in Pbgh up until now. The Giant Eagle chain has nice stores and sophisticated merchandise, but the prices for EVERYTHING in there are just unbelievably high. TJ just opened, and Whole Foods has been open just a couple of months (it's not close to my daughter's house, either) so we're hoping for a real blast of competition.

Mike

[Austin_]

Whole foods has great olive oil. They have many brands so it would be best to choose one that looks good to you. Why? Because it's made from fresh olives and it's all organic. Organic food always tastes better, no matter what. I'm not a big fan of olives but you have to try organic olive oil. It tastes really awesome. i usually try to find one that fits my budget, however. They have little olive oil "spraying machines", so you can put a little bit in a plastic bottle, depending on how much you want, and taste it when you go home. That's what I always do.