A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Ramo: Celebrating 11 Years of Wine, Charcuterie, & Community

• Visit Bentonville

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Ramo founder Laura Gheen sits down to share the journey of creating Bentonville's beloved wine bar, now celebrating its 11th year. From its origins as a cozy neighborhood gathering spot to becoming a Bentonville icon, Laura reveals what makes this gem unique.

Ramo is a charming place to enjoy wine, charcuterie, and outdoor seating with friends and was recently rebranded from "Ramo de Olivo" (Italian for "olive branch") to just "Ramo." Hear more about Laura's famous Monday night spaghetti dinner featuring her homemade sauce, custom gift services, holiday happenings, and more.

Visit Ramo's website at ramodolivo.biz or find them on social media to learn more about events, tastings, and special offerings.

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Natalie Leding:

Welcome back to A New American Town. I'm your host, Natalie, and we are proudly presented by Visit Bentonville. Today, we're diving into one of the staples of Bentonville's food and wine scene, Ramo d' Olivo. From its beginnings as a cozy wine bar and olive oil shop to becoming a gathering place for locals and visitors alike, has been a part of Bentonville's downtown story for years. I'm joined by its founder and owner, Laura Gheen, who will share the bar's origin story, their journey into the wine business and what makes this place so special for our community and for our guests discovering Bentonville for the first time. Thank you so much for joining me, Laura. Thank you for having me, Natalie, so excited to talk about Ramo and dive in. It is one of my favorite places here in Bentonville and it is so special and so different from anything. So for anyone that's never been before, would love for you to set the scene and what is Ramo all about?

Laura Gheen:

Well, thank you for being a patron. We appreciate that and that's exactly why we invented it and proceed with our cozy, inviting atmosphere. We used to be closer to town and this is a new location for us, but we've been there for two years. It's a work of passion. Two years, it's a work of passion. We started Ramo because we had nowhere else to go to have a glass of wine and a charcuterie board and sit outside and meet with our friends. So basically, that is the premise of Ramo, and you accomplished that.

Natalie Leding:

My husband and I have gone so many times to just sit on the patio with our dog and drink wine and charcuterie, so I love that. My husband and I have gone so many times to just sit on the patio with our dog and drink wine and charcuterie, so I love that that passion has trickled down to so many more people that need that. And I just want to say you're still close to town. It's not like you're that far. You used to be like right off the square, but you're still right by the momentary and over in that area. So you're in such a cute it used to be a house.

Laura Gheen:

Yeah, from what I've heard, it's one of the older homes in Bentonville it was built in the 1800s, but before we moved in it was a law office and we have lots of patrons that come in and say well, I took dance classes here, so it was a dance studio at one time as well. And yeah, it's not far. We're just like a block from the library, we're walking distance to the Momentary, we're across the street from Peddler's Pub.

Natalie Leding:

We really feel like we're the neighborhood niche bar and, honestly, with all the construction and as downtown has changed so much, it just keeps expanding out that one day, ramo, you know everyone will be like that's downtown. What do you mean? I mean it feels like downtown, exactly. I love that. Yeah, your space is so unique. How long have you guys been in business?

Laura Gheen:

So we are in our 11th year of business the new location. We just celebrated two years in August and it's been actually an amazing move for us. We were a little nervous about moving away from the square, but business has never been better. We're uniquely ourselves, we're not attached to anything else, so we have a little bit of parking. Obviously, you can ride your bike, bring your dogs and we're, you know, right there in the middle of a neighborhood, so we have tons of neighborhood traffic. You know, Momentary, AirBnbs, it's. It's just really been a great location for us.

Natalie Leding:

Yeah, it is. I love sometimes I'll see people walking around and they've just been over to Ramo and they have a brown paper bag with a wine bottle and they're going back to their Airbnb and spending an evening together and it always makes me smile because it really adds to the whole experience of you're coming here as a local or a visitor and supporting a local shop. So it's really special. So the name itself , I feel like, is really unique and there has to be a story behind it. So I'd love to know where did that come from?

Laura Gheen:

Well, there's a little bit of a story. We started thinking when we first were going to open Rama and we kind of nicknamed it Ramo, because of where we live. You know, a little bit hard for a southern accent to say Romo de Livo.

Natalie Leding:

Oh, and I was saying Olivo, it's okay, almost everyone does that.

Laura Gheen:

I mean, even I did in the beginning. So we wanted something to do with olive, olive oil, olive branch, and every name was taken. And we had a friend visiting us and he's like you know, you should use Google Translator and see what it is in Italian. So that's how we got the name Ramo, ramo di Livo, which is basically the olive branch in Italian. But because people had a hard time pronouncing it and not just here all over we decided to kind of simplify it and just call ourselves Ramo. So we rebranded when we moved.

Natalie Leding:

Oh, so it's just Ramo now, oh wow, make it easy, oh my goodness, yeah, I mean, that's what we all call it here, so that does make it easy. And your neon sign you can't miss it. It's beautiful. Thank you, yeah, you're welcome. So yeah, you kind of were just talking about the olive oil aspect. We've been talking about wine and charcuterie, but you have a huge front room full of different olive oils.

Laura Gheen:

Tell me more about that. So the original concept that we had was that we were going to be an olive oil shop with a small wine bar, and what turned out to be our backbone of our business is the wine bar, the gathering spot. So we are now a nice size wine bar with a small olive oil shop. When our town allowed it, we became a wine shop as well, so that has really grown. So the front room is mostly wine, some olive oil and balsamics and, yes, it is the little retail link in the neighborhood for the brown bags.

Laura Gheen:

So we have people coming and refilling their olive oils and buying a bottle of wine, and you have the things to make dinner, which is kind of what our concept was, yeah, originally it's a perfect place to go and grab a quick gift and a really unique gift too.

Natalie Leding:

You can't find any of that anywhere else, so it's so special.

Laura Gheen:

You're welcome, and we do custom gift too. You can't find any of that anywhere else, so it's so special. You're welcome and we do custom gift bags. We're really busy during the holiday season making all kinds of custom gift boxes and bags and corporate gifts and whatever people need.

Natalie Leding:

Should people just reach out to you in advance to schedule that out?

Laura Gheen:

Absolutely Give us a couple of weeks to get it together. We've done up to 150 for corporate gifts. We do private events as well. We can service a lot of areas that way.

Natalie Leding:

Wow, what's your favorite.

Laura Gheen:

All the fruit balsamics. They all come from Central California, from this one farm. I buy directly from the growers and it's all organic, it's delicious, so I love all of those. The aged balsamic has to be like everyone's favorite because it is truly delicious and it's well-priced because it does come from Italy. Delicious and it's well-priced because it does come from Italy. As far as olive oils, the ones that we sell now are our favorites. Like all of them are our favorites. We had a lot more, but once we moved we just kind of paired them down to our favorites. If you like, a flavored, one kind of partial to the lemon. I love the flavor of lemon, but we have unflavored olive oils that are absolutely delicious and I love the organic Arbequina as my go-to.

Natalie Leding:

And it seems like you can do so much with that, like all the olive oil cakes and like making it in desserts. Now, like the lemon olive oil would be so good in a lemon cake, definitely. So how do you overall curate your wine list?

Laura Gheen:

That's a good question. That's one of the reasons, you know, it took me a time to get here today is because I have I buy from at least six different sales reps, distributors, wine distributorships and they come in and they show me wines. We taste wines, we talk about wines, we talk about regions, we talk about what we don't have, what we need, what people are asking for, and we literally taste and decide which wines to put in our shop and we really try to stay away from what might be in a big box store or a supermarket.

Laura Gheen:

So I try to make it more boutique things that they wouldn't find necessarily everywhere else, and one of the reasons why our wine shop has been so successful we did. We have all these rotating shelves If something doesn't sell, we just go on to something else, so there's always new and different, and that's our goal as well.

Natalie Leding:

Yeah, and that brings people coming back too, to see what's new, what's different and what they can try. Now Do you guys still offer your spaghetti nights? Oh yeah, we do Tell our audience more about those.

Laura Gheen:

We do a spaghetti night and it is my homemade sauce. It kind of started as our bartender James, who everyone knows, saying Laura, you know our slowest night of the week, you should make your spaghetti and maybe we'll sell a few. And I'm like, all right, well, let's try that. So Monday night was our slowest night, so we started doing it. We would sell maybe 10 or 12. Now it's become such a thing. We used to only do it in the winter, now we do it year round. We recommend reservations because we sell out and we really can't accommodate all the people that want it, and it's become quite a thing a local favorite?

Natalie Leding:

Yeah, it really has. So it's still on Mondays. Oh yeah, okay.

Laura Gheen:

And what time. So definitely call for a reservation, because we sell out and we book out. We start around five and, until it's sold out, typically around eight.

Natalie Leding:

But we used to be able to do walk-ins, but we just can't anymore yeah, well, all the other nights of the week there's still so much happening and so much that ramo offers. Your menu has such a great selection of bites and treats and snacks. Um, what are your favorites on the menu, other than your spaghetti, of course?

Laura Gheen:

well, um, all the, all the bites we design just to be easy to go with wine or a glass of beer. I really am partial to our hummus plate. We make that fresh every day. I just find it fresh. We put vegetables with it and it's just an easy thing to munch on.

Natalie Leding:

It is very fresh. I've had it before and I did not know that you made it in-house, but it definitely is apparent, because it tastes like nothing I could get at any store. So it's, it's so good, and I love the charcuterie too, of course. Why do you think that Roma has become such a staple in Bentonville?

Laura Gheen:

I think what it's, because we're consistent, we are who we are. Our bartenders, managers have been there since the beginning. We are a family. You know we're a team and you know we hopefully present that. As you know, we are the community and Ramo is part of the community and coming there is just. You know what you expect. You know we don't change that much, so it's cozy, yeah.

Natalie Leding:

Cozy, reliable, absolutely. For someone visiting Bentonville for the first time, what kind of experience do you think they can expect when they come to Romo?

Laura Gheen:

Well, we try to greet everyone and make them feel right at home and you know we're really good at talking to people and signing them up for a wine club or a tasting. So, hopefully and we like to introduce people to other people we have a lot of friendships that started in Ramo and people tend to feel pretty comfortable there right away.

Natalie Leding:

Yeah, absolutely. How do you feel like what Ramo has done has really shaped the hospitality and wine scene in Bentonville in particular?

Laura Gheen:

Well, I'm not sure if it's shaped Bentonville, but I know it's shaped us and we are part of Bentonville. I mean, we've learned so much ourselves about wine over the last 10 years and just that experience and having a place where people can try new things, that's always been our goal. We have a rotating list, even on our wine, just so people can try new things all the time. So it's not the staid list that you might find at a restaurant that they don't change very often. Hopefully we've inspired other people.

Laura Gheen:

There's a new little champagne bar right up the street that we know that couple and we've helped give them a little bit of you know customer you know, send our customers there and try to promote them, and there's some other little local bars that we try to promote as well, so that we're kind of like a walking district that can go from place to place.

Natalie Leding:

That's awesome and that really is the Bentonville spirit. I love hearing you say that because it confirms what I experience when I'm a visitor in these places. It feels like there's camaraderie happening and there's this underlying love for one another. But I love hearing that you support the new champagne bar and all the other businesses around you, because Bentonville really prioritizes the local and making people feel so welcome. So, yeah, thank you for being a part of that story. Are there any special things that you're looking forward to in the future and what's coming up for Ramo?

Laura Gheen:

that you're looking forward to in the future and what's coming up for ramo? Well, um, yeah, we, we love doing the events, so we are, um, doing more and more wine events, more tastings, um, more wine. Travel is up is what's going forward, and so, uh, yeah, come by and see what's going on and we might give you an idea of where to go next.

Natalie Leding:

So you guys help people plan trips.

Laura Gheen:

We don't yet, but that's my goal is to do a little bit of wine travel and help organize some trips. So that's my future for Ramo.

Natalie Leding:

That's amazing, Awesome. Well, I love that and I love that our listeners have been able to get a little taste of Ramo today. Hope that everyone listening gets to experience it when you're here in town. Laura, thank you so much for joining us. Is there any way people can stay connected to you?

Laura Gheen:

Sure, we do have a website and we are a presence on social media as well, and you can just look up Ramo and we're right there. Love it, yep, awesome, thank you?

Natalie Leding:

Yeah, thank you. If you guys are looking for any more information on Bentonville in particular, you know to go to visitbentonvillecom or follow us online at Visit Bentonville. Thank you guys, so much for listening and I will see you in the next one. Bye.