History
This commitment to natural products grew from both women’s backgrounds in the food and beverage industry. Kieler worked for Chick-fil-a corporate for many years, helping open restaurants and develop recipes, and Stavely was formerly a professional chef. “With my history of being a chef, I don’t want to serve people fake food,” Stavely says.
“I want to serve you the best food that I can, even though I’m not technically cooking it anymore. It’s more of my ability to teach you how to use these ingredients so that way you can infuse them into your food in your house and just elevate your everyday meals.”
Olea sources olive oils from Spain and vinegars from Italy through a company in Pennsylvania that imports these products.
Along with a wide selection of olive oils, vinegars and wines, Olea sells other “gourmet grocery” products such as handmade pastas from an Italian company called Marella, teas from Oliver Pluff, a veteran-owned business in Charleston, South Carolina, and Lizzy’s Cheese Straws, a small company that uses a third-generation recipe to make their flavorful snacks.
“We want to be able to help out small businesses as well because we are a small business,” Stavely says.