Celebrating 25 Years for Olio2go
It was back in the 1990’s when the founders of Olio2go started regularly traveling to Italy. The food was great, the people were great, the experience was great. It was always a relaxing time away from the rat race in the US. Those trips usually involved a lot of driving as we made a point to see new things. The goal was to see all twenty regions of Italy eventually.
But along the way, there was an epiphany when they tasted olive oil that was so good that we had to have more of it and we decided to start the business. Over time, we learned that the quality of ingredients is the secret to making good Italian food. And back in 1999, there was nobody selling olive oil online. You just could not get decent olive oil in the US. So, a new e-commerce store was born – olio2go.com.
In the early years, olio2go was a small online source for a few really good olive oils. We always made a point to represent only Italian olive oil as it makes a difference to focus rather than trying to be all things to all people. Our dedication to curated olive oils means that we need to know who makes the oil and actually visit the producers. Our mantra “know the producer” means that we want to see them and talk to them to learn about the production, the varieties of olives they grow, and look them in the eye. In these ways, we hope to deal with only honest growers because we know there is fraud in the olive oil industry. Only by knowing who we deal with can we ensure that the product is what it claims to be. Our dedication to high quality products is still our primary focus.
Today, our product line has expanded to dozens of high-quality oils from all over Italy. We added other Italian food products over the years as we came across products from producers who have the same passion about producing high quality Italian products.
As the business has grown, we also expanded our facilities. We now have a full functioning warehouse in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. From this location, we manage the business and ship products all over the US and even to a few other countries.
It is always fun to get to know our customers and customer service is very important to us. While we can’t name names, it is always fun to see an order come in from a really famous person or a famous chef, but we also enjoy talking to the people who have become friends through years of helping them buy Italian olive oil and try new things. We ship to people’s homes and their second homes. We ship to chefs working on a big yacht in the Caribbean. We ship to people in rural areas without good high quality food stores. Every customer matters to us.
Our retail storefront in Northern Virginia has also expanded over the years and has become a go-to place for smart shoppers, too. Until 2012, we did not have a storefront where you could come and browse. But once we opened the bricks-and-mortar store, we started to find customers in the Washington area appreciated the convenience. We have even had foreign visitors stop by on their way to the airport to take home some Italian olive oil on their private jet.
While we don’t advertise the store as much as we advertise online, we do invite customers for local events, such as weekly tastings. We had some comments in the early years that said “it is a nice store but they’ll never make it.” Well, here we are 25 years later and we are going strong. 2025 looks to be our best year ever.
Thank you to all our customers and producers. We truly appreciate your support and interest in our success. Grazie mille!!