The Shopkeeper: Veera Gaul

Oil & Vinegar’s Veera Gaul has a quality bias.

Veera Gaul found the next chapter of her life by not moving to the beach. The former Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Johnson & Wales University chucked her plan to retire in Blufton and looked west, toward a part of South Carolina she’d never been. Her husband, Joe, wanted to open a small retail business. When the burgeoning olive oil sector peaked his interest, Veera looked at him and said, “If you’re going to do something like this, I’m going to do it with you.”

She had overseen 500+ faculty members on the four campuses of the culinary-leaning college; Johnson & Wales maintains campuses in Providence, Miami, Denver and Charlotte. Over her tenure she also taught culinary supervision, change management and cultural intelligence, all in line with her graduate degrees in humanities and international relations. (It was Gaul who shocked Charleston hospitality circles by closing the renowned culinary school and relocating it in Charlotte.)

Today she’s the face of Main Street Greenville’s Oil & Vinegar, one of just 14 such stores in the US, though the Netherland- based parent counts more than 100 retail locations overseas. The day we met up, Gaul was heading off to the Fancy Food Show in New York, charged with product research for the US Oil & Vinegar stores. She loves the trip for the treasure hunt: “I’m always looking for the next food innovation.”

Last year she discovered solid balsamic vinegar and secured an exclusive for its US distribution. It’s comprised of two ingredients: balsamic vinegar and agar agar, a neutral binder, and is the size and shape of a lacrosse ball. It won’t melt, remains shelf stable and is grate-able with a microplane over salads, pasta or dessert. And, it may just be the ultimate gift for a foodie.

Franchisees consistently ask for new product offerings because Oil & Vinegar is clearly more than just a line-item store. Gaul fills those retail holes with gourmet goodies— pesto and pastas, sauces, spices, dips and tableware—culled with her discriminating eye. She is a gourmand in every sense, consumed with both healthy eating and the notion that entertaining can be fresh, easy and beautiful. “Consumers have been lulled into thinking if it’s flavorful it must be bad for you, or if it’s healthy it must taste bad,” she says. “I really believe you don’t have to give up one to the get the other.” She points out that most of their vinegars have no added sugar and all of the balsamic vinegars have no caramel syrup added (a sneaky supplement brands can use to increase viscosity).

She seems adroit at engaging customers to once again consider entertaining in the home. “Life doesn’t have to be you take two days off work to have people over for dinner,” she says. “I want this to be a culinary inspiration store. For people to come in here and when they leave be inspired to go home and cook.”

This fall marks the five-year anniversary for Greenville’s Oil & Vinegar store. Gaul says they opened it in 2013 to have fun and connect with their new community. She and Joe had had their careers, but they still enjoy working hard.

Recently, she has extended her working hours to collaborate with MFHA, the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospitality Alliance, part of the National Restaurant Association. She helps train restaurants to recognize and check unconscious bias in the hospitality environment, to provide better service by not allowing bias to “color interactions with guests, as an employer or as an employee.” Unconscious bias is about a lot of things, Gaul says. “Yes, it can be about ethnicity, but it can also be about how we perceive the clothes people wear, a tattoo on their neck, their age, and for sure an accent of any kind. Bias always comes from ignorance because you haven’t learned enough about a person.”

She’s advised corporations, fast food franchises, fast casual concepts and even a few independents. To demonstrate biases Gaul will offer a bunch of oranges. “Can you tell them apart?” she’ll ask. Next, oranges are handed out. Participants are asked to study their orange and then name it. “Almost 90% can find their particular orange back in a bunch,” she says. “It’s simply about getting to know one another.” If you’ve ever walked in Oil & Vinegar, you know that’s what Veera does best.