Olive Oil Tasting @ Di Palo's

Di Palo's was suggested to me by Maryna who shares with me an appreciation for old world markets selling gourmet fare in old world neighborhoods. A few weeks ago I did visit but could hardly get past a peek as Dipalo's was almost bursting with customers! I returned again much wiser for a leisurely visit on a Tuesday afternoon and was pleased to find the place quite quiet. While shopping for olive oil, one of the owners of Di Palo's offered a tasting of select olive oils from Italy chosen specifically for their shop by his elder brother Lou. Di Palo's is one of the oldest purveyors of fine Italian foods located in little Italy on Grand Street and is run by the fourth and fifth generation of Savino Dipalo who arrived in New York in 1903 from his small mountain village of Montemelone in Basilicata, Italy.

Just as with fine wine, environment plays a role in the taste of olive oil, a staple for the Mediterranean diet. Whether produced in coastal Liguria or the Tuscan hills, olive oils can be found with drastically different flavors and aromas which depend on the olives’ varietal and the climate in which they are cultivated and harvested. Sweet, grassy, buttery, herbaceous, and peppery, high-quality olive oils offer a complex mixture of flavors, aromas, and textures.

Recently Di Palo's opened their first wine shop dedicated exclusively to Italian wines next to their gourmet store. Both are separated by a glass wall which offers tantalising glimpses of the latteria next door with it's rounds of cheese and hams hanging from the ceiling and from this store you can spy the red chandeliers and neatly arranged wine bottles of the wine store.

200 Grand Street
New York, NY