


Oil Change For The Better

If you were an Italian villager, you'd carry your carafe or wine bottle to the town market each week and fill it with deep green olive oil. Panzano Provviste e Vino in Southborough is bringing a little bit of la dolce vita to the suburbs with a serve-yourself olive oil dispenser. The extra virgin, cold-pressed oil, called Era Ora (roughly translating to "about time") comes from Calabria in southern Italy and is made for the specialty foods and wine store, owned by and adjacent to Tomasso Trattoria and Enoteca. Calabria produces particularly robust oils; Era Ora is verdant green and tastes buttery and grassy. Since the oil, which is accompanied by samples of the store's homemade ciabatta, went on sale two months ago, customers have started taking home about 30 liters a week, far outselling the other specialty oils in the shop. "It's become a fixture," says store manager Fred Mullins. Panzano employees are on hand to help first-timers fill a 16 - ounce bottle with a screw-on cap ($ 14.99). Return with your bottle and refills are $ 12.99.
ERICA NOONAN