About O'Live A Little

Ahe start of something wonderful….Even though the main focus was all scratch French style baking, from our travels in Europe we wanted to incorporate excellent quality olive oil and vinegar on tap. The smell, color and varying tastes of fresh olive oil is a revelation! Olive oil has many distinct flavors and is meant to add flavor to food. And, the dimension balsamic and traditional vinegars add to food is many times what makes a good recipe a great recipe. We realized most people in the United States did not understand what good olive oil and vinegar is supposed to taste like. So, we opened the bakery with 16 various flavors of olive oil and balsamic vinegar which quickly became a huge hit with our customers.

Ahe Journey Continues. Not having a physical store and being ten years older and wiser (possibly debatable!), has allowed us to regroup and reimagine O’Live A Little for the next ten years and beyond. Our new website and blog is still dedicated to the two products we truly love: Olive Oil & Vinegar. But, now as childfree 50-somethings, we have the time to expand our interests and travels to discover even more great cheese, honey, sausage, jerky and hopefully a few surprises along the way. We hope you enjoy the new format and find our recipes, our travels and musing, and Hugo the Frenchie, our sweet-crazy travel buddy fun and interesting.

Aow It Began…O’Live A Little started out as a dream fulfilled, a bakery in a small seaside village. In February 2009, a friend called to tell us a small local bakery was for sale. In a heartbeat we bought it, renovated and officially opened as O’Live A Little Specialty Gourmet on Memorial Day weekend that same year.

After a successful summer, the little seaside village’s sidewalks rolled up as all the tourists and summer residents went home. A decision was made to find another location that offered a larger, year-round community that would enjoy our offerings. In November 2009, we relocated to South Windsor, CT, removed the bakery component and expanded our offerings to include more olive oil, vinegar, cheese, salts, honeys, pastas and more.In January 2020 with our lease expiring and the overall retail trend away from brick and mortar the decision was made to close O’Live A Little’s physical location. It was an amazing 10 year run and we miss seeing all our wonderful customers and dedicated team members. However, in retrospect, barely two months after closing our physical door, Covid 19 hit and its effect on retail has been devastating. We are truly grateful we had the serendipitous fortune of not choosing to renew our lease. For, had we, it would have most certainly spelled disaster for our little store.

Just a Little Bit More About Jennifer, Matt & Hugo

 O’Live a Little was inspired by Matthew and Jennifer Ostrowski’s love for and enjoyment of food and travel. Matthew is a successful Connecticut business man and Jennifer is a trained Pastry Chef, with a degree from Johnson & Wales University School of Culinary Arts. Hugo the Frenchie is a French Bull Dog that loves to swim, sleep, snore, eat treats and travel wherever Jennifer & Matthew roam.