Firsts

The Eating Richmond blogger meet-up occurred last night at Olio, the European Market that graciously offered to host us.

The sign makes me smile. Every time I drive past the place I think about how darn cute the sign is.

The inside decor is quaint and cute as well – as you’d expect from a European Market. Alas, there’s much more space here than any of the European Markets I’ve visited in Europe. It’s a fact, everything is bigger in America. We may take pride in that, but it’s not always a good thing, people! In this case, the extra seating and walking room in Olio was nice – especially for meeting and greeting.

They had a nice selection of prepared foods, as well as, imported dry goods, beer and wine.

And there were plenty of cheeses for all you cheese-heads!!

I snacked on a few items that were ordered by a couple sharing bloggers. Isaac and I split a slice of (Veggie) Grazing Goat Pizza, which included fresh Chevre, roasted red peppers, garlic hummus, and fresh basil. I loved that hummus was a topping as I’ve been a fan of hummus on pizza ever since trying Mae’s Pizza Cheese Sauce. You can’t really go wrong with fresh goat cheese. And, the crust was thin, yet flavorful. Both Isaac and I really enjoyed our taste!

We also tried the lemon olive oil with white bean and tomato bruschetta, and a bite or two from ‘the Parma’ – an antipasto plate with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, dolce gorgonzola, assorted olives & grilled breads, drizzled with balsamic.

Seriously everything we tasted we kept saying, “Wow, this is so good!” Then the grand finale arrived, my actual order, the veggie delight sandwich served as a wrap. Garlic hummus, basil, roasted eggplant, red peppers, roasted tomatoes, artichoke hearts and greens were stuffed into a thin grilled wrap.

This wrap was the highlight of the evening for me, food wise. I love each component on its own, but when combined in this slightly warmed wrap the deliciousness was only magnified. When I return, which I’m hoping will be very soon, I’m not sure I could bring myself to order any of the other vegetarian sandwiches because this one was so good.

I had an awesome time meeting other local food bloggers and finally putting a face to blog names/online photos/charactertures, but I ended up having to leave early as last night was also the first meeting of a book club that I recently became part of.

I left Isaac with all the foodies and headed over to the house we were meeting at with some Brownie Point edgies to share.

I’d never done a book club before – besides online, so I didn’t know what to expect, but it was really fun. I’m thoroughly enjoying the book we are reading so it was nice to talk it out with others. It was also nice to hang out with some ladies my age – living in Richmond without any of my girlfriends around has been quite a challenge. Now that I’m joining some new groups – the boot camp group and this book club, I’m feeling as though I have more friends here and that’s definitely a nice feeling.

Last but not least, Fridge Finds Wednesday:

My salad from lunch that included every vegetable in the crisper drawer!!

Enjoy your Wednesday my friends.

- Brittany

Tagged as: European Market, Fridge Finds Wednesday, Olio, Untitled