Although Cold Spring may appear as a sleepy little village with picturesque scenery and a thriving commercial connection to NYC, a monster lurks beneath the noses of the unsuspecting civilians. These days, people assume that the Italian mafia is something of the past, something that we no longer worry about. Something that only belongs in the new season of “Tulsa King” or any other pop culture phenomenon in the last 25 years. But many stores in Cold Spring contradict this theory…. especially the Blue Olive. Which is an Italian mafia front. Clearly.
Plenty of stores raise an eyebrow for curious Haldane students, such as the Pig Hill Inn or The Cold Spring Hotel. Yet the most interesting of them all is the Blue Olive. Why don’t any high school students go inside? Why is it right next to an art gallery? Why is the olive blue? (No, seriously, why is it blue?) The lack of activity within this “business” isn’t the only thing that is concerning; why aren’t they more involved in the community? What makes Cold Spring great is the interconnected and supportive community that everyone loves, yet why do we know no one who works at the Blue Olive? Why have they never put advertisements in the Haldane Drama playbills or sponsored any Little League teams? Many questions are being left unanswered here, and plenty of people are left wondering.
Inspecting the website, they claim to sell wine, olive oils, vinegars, and gourmet salts, a strange mix of products if you ask me. How do you make salt gourmet? They claim that they’re a family business that has locations in Pawling and Poughkeepsie, interesting. Apparently, Cold Spring wasn’t the only town that Blue Olive has targeted. Additionally, when scrolling through Google Maps, Blue Olive doesn’t appear…. even more suspicious. It’s like they’re trying to erase their own existence.
Upon contacting the Cold Spring location with the aim of confronting them, John Canevari, one of the owners of Blue Olive, picked up the phone. In an interview with Canevari, he informed The Outlook that his area of expertise is primarily wine, due to his experience with vineyards when he was younger. Canevari worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the majority of his career and started Blue Olive with his wife as a side business. His wife is the co-owner of Blue Olive and has run it for around 13 years. After this insightful conversation that nearly convinced me there was no mob connection, I decided to viciously question him on his connection to the mafia. Canevari responded with, “There is no connection with the Mafia that I’m aware of, and I didn’t know that the Mafia targeted small towns!” He followed up by stating, “This is hilarious, I didn’t actually think people thought this,” clearly in an attempt to throw me off his trail. Worry not, I have a commitment to rooting out the mob from our town and keeping Cold Spring safe and secure.
