egging on oakville

Chowhound discussed the SF Oakville Market's closing and ponderings if the other stores were doomed. I was in need of a bottle of wine yesterday for a dinner party, and needed to stop by the Stanford Mall, so I decided to check on Oakville.

Side Note: Oakville has been at the Stanford Mall for as long as we've lived in the area (16+ years). We think it is the best place on the Peninsula to get cheese.

The store was very empty at 4pm on a Friday, and I don't mean people empty. The wine racks were almost bare and the olive bar covered with snacks. I was scared!

The wine guy gave me reqs for a bottle for dinner. At the same time he calmed my fears, saying he just got $12K worth of wine in and was starting to put it out on the floor. He got the guy (running the cheese department??) at the cheese counter to bring out the olives for me. Never had an olive bar set up in my honor! The cheese guy said he was new. He'd ordered new olives, cornichons, almonds and vegetables for the olive bar and hadn't set them out yet. He felt Oakville was in a rut ordering the same olives for years. The new olives were quite good, minus the dry cured ones, which were mealy. There was something un-sexy seeing the olives come out of plastic countainers, or worse yet cans and then placed into yuppified white bowls for selection. I know that is how the olives are shipped, but it ruins the experience!

Earlier in the week I stopped at Country Sun to pick up a container of Yokohl Valley Ranch eggs. Country Sun is the only vendor to carry them locally. They are the only local free range eggs outside of a farmer's market that I have found in the Peninsula. Shipments to Country Sun are infrequent, so best to call if you want some.

Oakville Grocery Palo Alto
715 Stanford Shopping Center
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 328-9000

Country Sun Natural Foods
440 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 324-9190