Olive Orchard opens J&R Bistro

The owners of the Olive Orchard in Rehoboth Beach are branching out with a new restaurant, J&R Bistro.

For the First Street Station store’s owners, a restaurant using the Olive Orchard’s line of balsamic vinegars and extra virgin olive oils was the next step.

Co-owner Roy Eckrote said, “We thought the next logical plan once we opened the Olive Orchard was to use the products we're selling in this store and show people how they can be used in products in every day life.”

Eckrote founded Olive Orchard last year with his wife, Laura. The couple has teamed up with co-workers John Zingo and Rick Johnson on the new venture.

Zingo said the line of oils and vinegars available at Olive Orchard will be used in all the foods at J&R Bistro, which features sandwiches, soups and salads.

“The salads, they’ll be able to pick from 60 varieties of olive oils and balsamic vinegars to basically make their own salad dressings. Plus, we’ll have some signature salad dressings that we’ve combined that we hope will go over very well,” Zingo said.

Eckrote said the bistro will have six to eight sandwiches per day, four soups and five salads. Zingo said the menu will change with the season, and the bistro plans to use fresh, local ingredients.

“We’ll probably have a cold soup for the summer and as the weather starts getting cooler, we’ll start introducing our hot soups,” Eckrote said.

Among the featured sandwiches will be a chicken salad with craisins, walnuts and grapes on a cranberry walnut bread, Eckrote said. Another, Zingo said, is a tuna salad with apples on orange bread. Tying the Olive Orchard into the bistro is a muffaletta, which Zingo said would come with chopped olives and Italian meats.

“Rehoboth has been a great place to open a foodie-type business. They’ve been very receptive to us. The key for anything is listening to what the customers want,” Eckrote said.

J&R Bistro is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call 727-5873 or visit j-r-bistro.com.