The Olea Oliva! store at Avenue East Cobb, which sells gourmet olive oils, balsamic vinegars, spices, herbal teas and other artisanal food items, is closing.
The married couple of owner Smita Daya and her husband Dilip Daya are retiring and moving to Italy, where they have been frequently spending time in the nearly eight years since they opened the store.
The last day of business is Oct. 15, and a closing sale is underway, with 30 percent off full purchases using the promo code OLEAVIP30.
Smita Daya, who opened Olea Oiva! after a career handling commercial closings for a law firm, said she and her husband, both natives of rural areas of Africa, “are going back to the farm life.”
They’ve had a co-share housing arrangement near Florence, Italy, where they cultivated expertise in the olives, vinegars and wines that they featured in the store. (Dilip Daya, who has had a career in information technology, helps at the store and is an olive oil sommelier.)
“It’s time,” Daya said of her decision to close Olea Oliva!, which has been several months in the making. “I think I’ve had a good run. When it’s time, it’s time, and in my heart I feel it’s time.”
Daya and her husband raised two daughters who are Walton High School graduates, one of whom is a medical doctor.
She said she’s proud of what she learned and put to use as a business owner in a retail world that was challenging even before COVID-19.
Daya said she looks at her decision to close the store “not as a failure but as an experience. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to make so many friends and connecting with local business owners. I have grown as a woman and as an entrepreneur.”
Daya’s passion for healthy eating—a plant-based diet infused with olive oil—was at the heart Olea Oliva!
Her cookbook, “An Odyssey of Flavors,” was published in 2018, and when she moved the store to larger space at Avenue East Cobb, she conducted cooking workshops and wine tastings on-site.
“I love food and it has been a passion,” she said. “I took it to a different place.”
There’s a final wine-tasting and four=course Mediterranean meal this Saturday, with three spots left, and she’s donating all the proceeds to APTERS Zambia, a non-profit charity started by her daughter Annika that provides mobility aids for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities in the African country.
The cost is $100 each and you can sign up by clicking here.
After the store closes, Daya said she’ll take a few months to prepare for the move to Italy, and to take stock of what she’s done with Olea Oliva!
“I feel so blessed,” she said. “My heart is full.”
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