No need to travel to the Twin Cities for a tasteful, elegant and mouthwatering Italian meal. Olio has made its emergence in the Hudson dining scene as a pop-up restaurant located at Pedro’s Del Este, 212 Walnut St. 

Monday and Tuesday, Riley Jackson and Luke Sawtell take over the space with their staff, transforming it into a dining experience for the pasta, cocktail and decadent food lover. 

A dining experience like this doesn’t come without tens of thousands of hours of experience. 

Jackson has spent 15 years with the ownership of San Pedro’s Cafe, working now as the general manager for the restaurant. 

Sawtell also has a lengthy history in the restaurant industry, going back 27 years. He started at just 14 years old. Now, he’s known as Mr. Sawtell to the culinary arts students at Hudson High School. 

With Sawtell running the kitchen and Jackson taking over the front of the house, the two are sharing their mastered craft with Hudson. 

Partners in life and in the restaurant, Sawtell and Jackson have every intention of making dining at Olio an experience, from start to finish. 

After looking through hundreds of Italian words, Olio stood as they came across “aglio e olio,” garlic and oil pasta. The word “olio,” Italian for “oil,” looked to the pair like a person riding a bike.

The simplicity of the name. The elegance. The meaning. It made sense. 

Under “Olio,” the menu reads a variety of entrees, appetizers, desserts and cocktails.  

Jackson and Sawtell used to come home to each other at the end of the night and put their creative minds together in the kitchen. They’d jot down ideas of what recipes they might try out in their restaurant one day. 

Now, they hand out menus with their own creations to customers when they sit down. 

The menu

One of the most beloved ingredients of Jackson and Sawtell is balsamic, which can be found in a number of the menu items, offering unique twists on classic Italian dishes. 

The Panna Cotta, a vanilla sweetened cream dessert, and the Garganelli, a pasta with winter squash, mint and ricotta, both include balsamic. 

The ingredient also made its way onto the cocktail menu, as it is drizzled over the Italian Sour. 

The novelty dishes continue on the pasta menu with the Spaghetti Nero. Squid ink, not an overpowering flavor on its own, creates a bold, dark coloring for a seafood pasta dish. The pasta has a little bit of a kick to it and is bountiful in flavor. 

Customers can expect the menu to change up regularly, so if these dishes sound appetizing, you’ll want to make a reservation soon. 

Sawtell and Jackson hope to make Olio a permanent restaurant destination in a home of its own. For now, though, they’re more than happy to be experimenting and perfecting their dining experience on Walnut Street.