The Crushed Olive has moved in to Union Square in Hickory, NC. It brings with it a very special atmosphere normally reserved for great metropolitan centers like New York City or San Francisco that move a lot of money and its people have traveled widely and hail from many countries.
Well, the Crushed Olive can be hypnotic. Your eyes tend to unfocus as you pass over the threshold, and your sense of smell comes forth and takes over. The eyes return to focus on canisters that grab your attention and pull you right into their midst. Tiny plastic cups conveniently stacked between the canisters beg you to sample the contents of any (all?) of the containers, and small chunks of bread are available help neutralize your taste between samples.
Most of the containers are filled with either balsamic vinegars or olive oils, and there are more variations on both of these themes than are currently in your entire imagination (unless you have already been into the Crushed Olive).
Are the samples good? Of course, but that’s not the point. And there are not really a lot of nuances in the Crushed Olive repertoire either. The canisters of oils and vinegars simply dispense new horizons of experience to the explorers who stand beside them savoring tastes they have never dreamed of before.Beneath the canisters are rows of empty bottles. When you find an oil or vinegar you want to take home, an attendant will fill one of the bottles for you - either full size or half size - and then they will seal the bottles so they can’t possibly leak on the way home.
Most of the bottles will cost about $15 or so, but there are important variations running up to $25 or $30 for truffle oils. The half size bottles run around $9. I would like to see a still smaller bottle size for, say $5 or so. Because - there is a lot of stuff here that is really new to me and I would like to take several bottles home to try out .
So head on down to Union Square. Go to the Crushed Olive. It’s in Julia Rush’s old stomping grounds. Step inside - just to pick up a list of the varieties available for tasting - that’s all (heh-heh). Don’t smell anything, and above all don’t taste any samples - well, maybe you could taste just one. Why not?
