To spend time in Tosca, a new boutique on Main Street that specializes in olive oils and balsamics, is to take your tongue on a roller-coaster of peculiar and unexpected flavors. While the shop dedicates some space up front to meats and cheeses, much of the storeroom is occupied by long rows of stainless steel containers (or, in industry parlance, fustis) filled with everything from a curiously sweet espresso vinegar to a fermented honey infused with serrano pepper and an olive oil from Australia that tastes like grape juice. Fortunately, you can sample any and all of these products, ad nauseum.
A shop as precious as Tosca—with its exposed brick walls, dramatic glass facade and primo location next to the AC Hotel—is bound to invite its fair share of grumbling. In downtown Missoula, where a sub-$15 burger is fast becoming extinct and a Coors Light can cost you six bucks (with tip), a niche olive oil emporium may not exactly inspire confidence in the neighborhood’s ability to sustain a culinary environment that’s welcoming to all.
Yet Tosca, which opened its doors in early August, has made itself much more accessible than its appearance might suggest. For starters, all of the shop’s olive oils and vinegars are sold in an array of sizes. Sure, you might not regularly stock your pantry with a hefty 750 ml bottle of Sicilian Biancolilla olive oil (“creamy artichoke center flavor,” “healthy peppery finish,” crushed in November 2022) for $38, but you can take home a tidy 60 ml sampler for the cost of that Coors (with tip), or a 200 ml for $14.
(As a point of comparison, you can pick up a full liter of Full Circle Market’s organic olive oil for $22 at the Orange Street Food Farm; that’s less than half as much, per ounce.)
The store’s greatest strength, however, is its manager, Madison Rothwell. A former high school math teacher, Rothwell cut her oil and vinegar teeth at Verdello in Sheridan, Wyoming. “I walked in and my universe expanded,” she recalled on a recent rainy afternoon at the shop. “I’d go wash bottles after school and work on the weekends just to be a part of it.”
She now works at Tosca with her husband, Caleb, and brother-in-law, the photographer Colton Rothwell. A passion for fine food runs in the Rothwell family: Caleb and Colton’s parents, Carl Funk and Tara Rothwell, own Tosca; Tara’s relatives founded the iconic (and, I can confirm firsthand, delicious) Tosca Cafe in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1919.
Rothwell helps source the oils and vinegars from Veronica Foods, in Oakland, California. Arguably more important, she makes the experience of exploring the store downright fun.
On my first visit to Tosca (before pitching this story), Rothwell immediately made me feel welcome. As she zipped around the store, joyfully firing off advice about which balsamic vinegars pair best with ice cream (blackberry ginger has my vote), my own sheepishness evaporated. Instead of feeling guilty about putzing around the place and sipping a sample or two from tiny paper cups, I became excited to try everything I could, and left with a small bottle of the most flavorful sesame oil I’ve ever tasted.
Rothwell acknowledged that Tosca can be intimidating, but hopes that won’t stand in the way of curious Missoulians giving it a try. “People come in and are nervous, because it does look very fancy,” she said. “But I’m able to say, ‘These are our prices, this is what I believe is fair.’ … The price point is there so that it’s fun and engaging.”
She also hopes that customers, no matter their experience, will trust their instincts. “Sometimes [customers] don’t want to say that they don’t like something. Guys, there’s no right or wrong answer,” she told me. “It’s a space to come explore.”
