Grace, Ancient Olive join forces

It might be easy to miss as you walk past the many shops located on Park Avenue, but tucked within the Avenue’s Hidden Garden lies a collaborative force that you may have yet to discover.

While at first glance, art and olive oil don’t seem to have much of anything in common, Winter Park stores Grace and The Ancient Olive have plenty to do with each other.

Both stores are located at 324 N. Park Ave. in Winter Park. The Ancient Olive specializes in the sale of olive oils and balsamics from many parts of the world, such as Spain, Greece and Tunisia. Grace sells oil paintings, European dinnerware, linens, pewter and gifts.

Grace owner Lael Dewahl is quick to note that oil is their common bond.

“We’re both in the oil business,” she said. “Oil is healing for your heart and your eyes. Art has been a contributor to the benefit of the human condition since the beginning of time.”

The stores are separate entities but the The Ancient Olive is connected through a doorway located at the back of Grace. Grace features some of its art in Olive, and they also work together to create Epicurean gift baskets.

Jeremy Schrader, co-owner of Olive, said the baskets feature olive oils and balsamics and more.

“If you look into one our Epicurean gift baskets, at the moment, that’s where our truest collaboration is,” he said. “It’s a basket that they’ve put together that has linens, napkins, things that we don’t carry and probably never would have.”

The stores have found their new collaboration so successful that they will be taking the partnership concept to St. Augustine, as they open up two new locations together there in May. Schrader said The Ancient Olive in St. Augustine will be bigger than the one in Winter Park.

A partnership forms

Schrader said that he and his partner’s foray into entrepreneurship began when they both made a decision to leave the corporate world behind.

“We both had corporate jobs, pretty good ones, making pretty good money, and decided that when the economy started tanking, and we could see all of our friends and co-workers, many of them, walk by our desk going to get their pink slips, we figured it was time for us to take our dwindling retirement money and invest it in a business that would make us happy,” he said.

He said a Google search led them to discover the Spice and Tea Exchange, a purveyor of fine spices, herbs, blends, salts and teas. They decided to become a franchisee of this business, and would later go on to found The Ancient Olive. When they were looking for a space to open this business, they came across a former store owned by Dewahl called The Villa.

“When Bryan (Behling) and I were looking for a space to open here in Winter Park, we visited all of the other shops around here, and one of our favorite shops was Lael’s shop at the time,” he said.

The Ancient Olive

The Ancient Olive is located at 324 N. Park Ave. in Winter Park and is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday-Tuesday. Visit theancientolive.com, call 321-972-1899 or email [email protected]

Grace

Grace is located at 324 N. Park Ave. in Winter Park and is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Visit gracewinterpark.com, call 407-766-7353 or email [email protected]

He said the beauty of her store and its offerings impressed them. Dewahl closed the store in April of last year and moved her business online, in order to spend more time with her children. Schrader and Behling were going to occupy the space that Grace does now, but realized the space wouldn’t be big enough to accommodate what they wanted to do. They contacted Dewahl to ask her if she would be interested in opening up a business in the vacant space, and she agreed. They both opened up shop in November of last year.

Other collaborations

Grace and The Ancient Olive aren’t the only businesses on the Avenue collaborating. iLashWorks operates its business inside of Sultre. Sultre is a clothing store, and iLashWorks focuses on eyelash extensions. Owner Kit Stephenson said her business has actually grown beyond the space it operates.

She said she is seeking her own space on Park Avenue or Morse Boulevard, but plans to stay local.

“I have outgrown my space,” she said. “We’ve hired another girl, and I don’t have enough space to do all of the services that we added in the past year, and our business is more or less exploding.”