Olive & Well in Oak Park

I did a search and didn't see anything on here about this cool little shop in Oak Park. My wife and I have gone in here a couple of times to pick up various flavored balsamic vinegar and a couple of flavored olive oils.

The shop doesn't look like much when you first walk in. There's a big table in the middle of the room with big metal dispensers that you can sample the oils and vinegars from. They have little paper shot cups that you can fill off the taps on the dispensers to help decide what you might like. They have some shelves along the walls with other oils and vinegars and you can take a taste of pretty much any of them they have I think. The staff is very friendly and more than willing to chat with you about their products.

Out of what we've tried so far the dark chocolate balsamic vinegar is fantastic. I use it on grilled romaine hearts a lot. The honey ginger balsamic is good on asian style salads. The tangerine balsamic is pretty tasty as well, though I usually grab for the chocolate first.

We still have several flavors we haven't opened yet. We'll use the olive oils in some stir fry eventually.

I figured some people on this forum might want to check this place out. They also have events where you can schedule a group of people for a formal tasting session. We haven't done that yet however.

Olive & Well, Inc.
133 N. Oak Park Avenue
Oak Park, Illinois 60301
P: 708.848.4230
E: info@oliveandwell.com

Their olive oils are very good, but I was kind of bummed that they didn't carry a simple high quality balsamic that wasn't adulterated with some other flavor. I like the flavored ones but it would be nice to have at least one good quality balsamic without any adornment.

They do have a pure 18 year old balsamic vinegar; it's on the center table closest to the checkout desk. They've moved things around from time to time, but they do have the good stuff...

Well now I guess I'll have to go visit them again - thanks!

Sunday I had some pork chops I had to get cooked as I had already thawed them on Saturday.

I had a partial bottle of the tangarine balsamic in my fridge. Since my wife and I haven't really used it on salads lately I decided to use it to marinate my chops.

I seasoned the chops with salt, pepper, garlic and cayenne. I put them in a gallon freezer bag and poured in the remainder of the bottle of tangarine balsamic (just under a cup I think.) I added about a 1/4 cup of olive oil and let them sit for a couple of hours.

I grilled them on high for about 4 minutes a side (they were about 3/4"chops) and let them rest for 10 minutes.

My wife said they were the best pork chops she's ever had. I said they were probably the best non-breaded pork chops I've ever had (she makes a mean breaded chop.)

I'm wondering how some of the other flavored balsamic will work for this in the future. I'm thinking of trying one of the berry ones (blueberry or strawberry) but I don't know if those will work as well as a citrus based balsamic. One way to find out I guess...