CLARION – Jackie Torkeo and Brenda Stelika love to cook and eat.
Torkeo, a pastry chef, and Stelika, a chef, formerly owned Barrel 55 in Brookville, an all-in-one bakery-bar-restaurant, and, until this past December, Table 46, a bakery and restaurant they operated in conjunction with a campground in the Cook Forest area.
Though their newest venture doesn’t necessarily require either to cook, it does cater to those who like cooking — the duo recently opening 46 Acres Olive Oil Co. on Route 322 north of Clarion where they sell over 60 flavors of specialty olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
“We have lots of gourmet food items and fun things, but olive oils and balsamics [vineagars] are the main event,” stated Torkeo.
Added Stelika, “We wanted to expand on our love for food with the olive oils and the vinegars. We investigated and thought, ‘Why not?’ It’s the best product; you can’t get this kind of quality in the grocery store.”
She continued, specifically discussing the olive oils on offer, “These are extra virgin olive oils, first press [produced using mechanical methods, such as crushing]. The ones in the store [olive oils], they tend to add some additional items as part of the ingredients, which kind of dilutes the oil. Here you get it straight up, it’s not diluted, the ingredients, like basil, are added after the press [infused] or before the press [fused]. It’s a higher quality.”
In addition to unflavored extra virgin olive oils, which taste solely of the olives from which they are pressed, the store also has flavored varieties, including garlic, butter, oregano and rosemary.
“Some people take a shot daily, just for health benefits,” Stella said, noting that the oils are rich in healthy fats, anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidant properties. “You can cook with them. A lot of people think you can’t really cook with these kinds of olive oils, but you can use it as a marinade, salad dressing, you can use it for almost anything you’d use butter for.”
“I kind of removed using butter when I cook my eggs. I have a woman that will put olive oil on her popcorn. Anything that you can think of where you put butter. You can bake with it.”
The store sells an equally impressive array of vinegars, both white (made from white grapes with a short fermentation time) and dark (slowly fermented, typically using a series of wooden barrels) in a variety of flavor profiles, among them Sicilian lemon, pomegranate, Quincy peach, lemongrass, mint, cranberry-pear, vanilla-orange and honey-ginger.
“Vinegars are flavorful and versatile, you can use them as a marinade, in a dressing,” Stelika noted. “It goes well with barbeques, particularly the darks. You can put it on ice cream.”
The store’s interior has a passing semblance to a brewery tap room, airtight stainless steel fusti containers that dispense vinegars and oils spread throughout the “showroom.”
Similar to a brewery offering flights for sampling its different beers, 46 Acres Olive Oil Co. allows customers to try the various olive oils and vinegars, giving them the opportunity to “taste test” potential purchases.
“We have an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tap room, unlimited tastings,” reported Torkeo. “We have tasting cups, we love to share tasting with everybody. You can walk through, see what’s on each table, whatever flavor kind of looks interesting to you, if you have a flavor you want to try [you can do that].”
“The balsamics are just so fun and they’re so refreshing and delicious. We often hear, ‘You could just drink that’ because they’re that good. They’re flavorful.”
The business has been well received by area “foodies.”
“We’ve been accepted. People come in and are, ‘We’re so glad that you’re here,’” offered Stelika. “These are people that have used oils and vinegars throughout their cooking lives. They don’t have to travel. Comments that we hear, ‘I’ve traveled to Pittsburgh or Franklin or order online to get this.’”
“Once you start using these, it’s hard to go back to traditional plain olive oils and vinegars from the [grocery] store.”
What about the “novice” customer?
“[They can expect] great treatment. When you walk in, we won’t hover over you, but we will walk them through our tables and they can taste anything they want,” Stelika said. “We have conversations with them because they’re going to say, ‘What do you use this for?’ Because I’m a cook, I share my experience with them.”
Contributed Torkeo, “Expect to have a great, fun experience. We like sharing. We always tell people, ‘What do you want to use them for?’ Tell us what you want to use it for, because we just might have something.”
Further information can be found on 46 Acres Olive Co.’s Facebook page and webpage at 46acresoliveoilco.com.
The store on Clarion’s River Hill is open Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fridays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Online ordering is available on the business webpage.
Dining and Cooking