Oil & vinegar

By Maggie B.

Oil & Vinegar, located at 28 South Park Street, Montclair, NJ, right in the center of downtown, is a gem of a store. When you walk in, there are two options: veer to the right and browse artisanal spices and dishware, and taste-test salsas and mustards; or go straight ahead and get a whole different experience, one where you try oils and vinegars and pick the ones you like best to be bottled up for you from their taps.

I went straight ahead and found myself trying as many oils and vinegars as I could. To my delight, there were a wide variety of flavors including fig, basil, and black truffle. Soon after, I browsed the rest of the store.
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Their items were perfect for a birthday gift, since your personally filled bottles of olive oils are refillable if you bring them back to the store. The store also offered personalized items for events such as weddings. Their other spices and food items were gourmet and unique, such as mini whisks and ravioli cutters.

What I found most interesting about the store was the fact that you could pick an oil or vinegar, pick your bottle size, and see it bottled before you. It makes your oil or vinegar seem very personalized: to go from taste-testing to your heart’s content, to having to narrow down all the options for what to get -- because, let's face it, you wanted to get almost all of the oils and vinegars you tried. After picking your oils and vinegars to see it bottled before you feels somewhat magical. And then the fact that you can buy a little metal label stating the name of the store for your bottle -- it's quite simple, but it's what sets Oil & Vinegar apart.

Oil & Vinegar has been open since late November 2015. It had everything a chef or gourmet-food-lover could want.

I highly recommend going to Oil & Vinegar. If you're a chef, there are plenty of spices, oils, and vinegars to fulfill many ingredient needs. Do you love to just try out all of the oils and vinegars? You can do that, too.

The store is cozy and rustic, and it's easy to browse the store for a long time. There's plenty of lighting, windows, and the store has its items placed in fairly good locations, except for a few flaws. And as much as I want to hide this little gem for myself, that would be wrong. Check out Oil & Vinegar, I bet you’ll love it.