From Greece to your table: meet Emerald Coast Olive Oil

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - From the vines of Greece to the fields of Portugal, a unique business in the Panhandle takes a variety of European olive oils and brings them to their store right off Back Beach Road, ready for your dinner table.

Quality and variety; those are the two pillars Lorraine Lechner and her sister Wendy built their Emerald Coast Olive Oil business off of.

“All of the olive oil is 100 percent extra virgin and it is fresh, which is really important for olive oil. And it changes over every six months. We get one crush in the fall, from the northern hemisphere, and we get another crush in the spring from the Southern hemisphere,” Lorraine said.

They have a total of 60 oils and vinegars to choose from.

“We fill the fusty tanks and put the olive oil, in this case, its balsamic vinegar, into the bottle like that for the customer,” she said.

While a primary focus is, of course, selling, their main focus is educating and demonstrating for the customer, making their store that much more unique.

“To us, we want to educate everyone and really make them a smart buyer. You know, really understanding what we have here and why it’s important to use quality products.”

The variety of products seem to go on, “Black truffle and the white truffle oils.”

And on, “Here’s chipotle, the green chili that’s jacked up a little bit.”

And on, “The cayenne, that’ll knock your socks off,” Lorraine said.

As for the different combinations Lorraine suggests, “The blood orange olive oil. I love it with the pomegranate. I like it with the cranberry pear with the Sicilian lemon.”

Now that’s endless, “Black cherry vinegar on watermelon. Oh, it is so good! Use this white truffle oil on your fries, it was delicious!”

“There’s just about something here for everybody,” she said.

Both sisters have a rich history that’s helped them achieve two storefront locations. Their broad knowledge stems in part from their experience owning and operating a cooking school on St. Kitts island for seven years.

“We took reservations from people that were on board ship and we bused them to our location. We were living and we had the school in an old plantation house. Oh, it was fantastic,” she explained.

Fast forward to today, they chose to settle down here in the Panhandle operating their two stores, one in Panama City Beach and another in Destin.

Despite the trying year, business has been pretty good.

“We have some absolutely fantastic, loyal customers. I have to tell you, during the pandemic when everything broke out and everything was locked down, our online sales shot up because people were staying home and cooking more and they thought of us. We had tremendous support.”

While she said their passion for this business is fueled by the quality of life and good health, “It’s fun to find a good quality product and health being so important and, you know, kind of, you are what you eat.”

The main driver is the people, “It’s the people. There’s no question about it. People come in here and get excited about the product and it just excited us about the product, you know. We try to find something that will suit their pallet and they’re happy! And that makes us happy!”

Lorraine and her sister Wendy also wrote a cookbook, complete with their favorite recipes using all of their olive oils and vinegars. You can find their book at either of their Panama City Beach or Destin store locations.

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