Welcome to Vinolio, a mainstay olive oil, balsamic vinegar and specialty provisions shop lodged in a charming brick-faced building in beautiful downtown Belfast, Maine. While Vinolio has been around for many years, we were fortunate to become the newest owners in the fall of 2021.

We’ve been together since high school in Alabama and have strong ties to our family’s popular restaurant there, home-style cooking with premium ingredients and share fond memories of our Sicilian grandfather’s homemade wine. We used to say we needed to open our own olive oil store because we would spend so much time in grocery store aisles reading the labels trying to find the most authentic and healthiest oils. And now we have them right here in our very own store along with balsamic vinegars and a growing selection of wines, pastas, spices, Italian delicacies and specialty items.

Guided by lifelong friends (who had moved to Belfast years ago where they opened a shortbread cookies and granola business and graciously hosted our family for many visits), we made the decision to put down roots here, too. As recent empty nesters, the timing was ideal and so we said goodbye to Florida and hello to Maine. Fortunately for us, Susan and Joe Woods chose us to be the new owners of Vinolio and we couldn’t be happier.

This is the first time we’ve ever owned a business and been our own bosses and we are loving every moment. We love our beautiful space on Main Street. We love our logo, our packaging and – most of all – our olive oils and balsamic vinegars. And, of course, our incredible customers and vendors! There’s just something about Belfast, with its powerful change of seasons and warm, welcoming people. We’ve already met kindred spirits all over town.

We look forward to meeting you and to introducing you to our children when they’re visiting. Costello -- who studied food and wine during a semester in Italy -- still lives in Florida where he works in a yacht provisioning store. And Carmela is attending college in Boston but manages to spend breaks with us and can already run the store with pure joy and ease.

Please drop in and say hello the next time you’re in the neighborhood! 

- Todd & Veronica Sazera