Very well. After creating the ultimate brick-and-mortar specialty-food store, it seemed natural for me to move to the Web. The idea of reaching people outside major cities, where specialty food is not so readily available, was extremely exciting. There are no walls, no limits, and no rules. It's virgin territory.
Food is such a sensory thing. It's about seeing, tasting, smelling. Isn't that at odds with a virtual experience?
Part of it has to do with availability. If you live in Laramie, Wyoming, you don't have the opportunity to buy truffle oil at your local store. But in a more romantic -- and a more intellectual -- sense, it also has to do with information and storytelling. It's been the premise of my entire career that the more people know about food, the more they will explore and the more they will broaden their tastes. If they truly know why an expensive bottle of olive oil is different -- the centuries of experimentation that it's taken to find the right patch of ground, how people in certain parts of the world have learned to pick the olives at just the right time -- they will try it.
This is something I've been doing all my life, through lectures, writing, and one-on-one interactions with customers. Now we can do that with a wider audience on the Web. When information is presented with romance and passion, it sells products and opens new doors for people. It's part of my mission in life to make sure that as many people as I can come into contact with understand the joy of wonderful food.
In the future, are we going to be buying our lettuce online?
No. But we will buy things that are very hard to find -- a really good sherry vinegar or a certain cheese that just isn't available in, say, Omaha. Our goal is to be the premier place in the world to find specialty food, cookware, and cookbooks.
Coordinates: bill@tavolo.com, www.tavolo.com
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