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An Organic Hotel Experience – The Inn At the Black Olive

Walking into my hotel room at The Inn At The Black Olive, I immediately was drawn to this room service delivery menu.

I had never before in all my travels (all 7 continents!) seen an 100% organic room service breakfast menu – much less complimentary! It was an incredible sight….

This was a great start for my stay in Baltimore, MD. This hotel is conveniently located near the largest natural products show on the east coast – Natural Products Expo East – which I attended earlier this fall. The Inn is completely eco-friendly and has a total of 12 suites – my suite was ridiculously large (ridiculous in a good way – I had to explain this use of the word to my mother the other day). I had my own living room, desk, kitchenette (sooooo important for my daily habits!), king size bed and a huge bathroom with a jet tub – the kind of jets that are pipeless and don’t harbor germs – and all the water was filtered – yes filtered! Can you say home away from home?

Incredible thought was given to the environment when creating the Inn. There are Limestone walls – no VOCs, Geothermal heating/cooling which saves 70% on energy expenditures, energy efficient elevators that don’t use toxic oils and eco-friendly cleaning supplies. The mattresses, sheets and towels are all made with organic materials and cotton, even the bath robes. And the carpet? Dyed with vegetable dye – no petroleum based red #40 here!

Between all of this, the Endangered Species Organic Mint Chocolate on my pillow and the clean eco-friendly beauty products in the shower – I seriously thought I was transported into a world only I could imagine – but this was all real. I didn’t pinch myself – just in case it wasn’t because I didn’t want to wake up…but if I did want to literally wake up – there was a nice selection of complimentary organic coffee and tea waiting for me just in case.

Onsite, the Inn has two amazing organic food restaurants….

I had a wonderful time at the “Olive Room” restaurant with Darren Mahaffy V.P. of Marketing from Nature’s Path, Max from Livingmaxwell, Hemi Weingarten, CEO of Fooducate, and Yve Golan, the lawyer who is on the Naked Juice and Kashi class action lawsuits (go her – right?!).

The discussion that night was very lively! That’s all of us doing a green juice cheers below… we didn’t just drink juice however, we also ordered a lot of food, including the mezze plate for the table, which had the best eggplant baba ghanoush I’ve ever had. For my meal – I ordered the avocado greek salad and baked (love this!) sweet potato fries with organic ketchup…. Everything was so fresh and very tasty – I wanted to eat off of everyone else’s plates and try it all.

It’s hard to decide my favorite part about the Inn, but ordering green juice whenever I wanted it – including having it ordered through room service at breakfast – comes close to the top of the list. The green juice at the Inn is made with a Norwalk machine – a high-end cold-press juicer that is recommended for cancer patients because it gets the most nutrients available out of fruits and vegetables without degradation or heat. Having Dominic, the owner of the hotel make this fresh for me every morning – was an over the top hospitable gesture. Dominic shared with me that he loves when people ask him to make juice, because he gets to make some for himself too. Awe.

Everyday before the show, I had the Agora gourmet market downstairs make my lunch to go so I could eat it later. The hummus wrap with a sprouted grain tortilla and kale salad were so good on the first day, I ordered the exact same thing for the second day at the show and for the airplane ride home. I can’t wait to try everything else on their cafe menu when I go back next year. Yep – I’ve already reserved my room – there’s no other place in Baltimore that I would ever want to stay…

Thank you to everyone at The Inn At The Black Olive for making Baltimore an enchanting home away from home and for your commitment to organic living and the environment.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever find a more organic hotel to stay in…until then.

Food Babe

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18 responses to “An Organic Hotel Experience – The Inn At the Black Olive

  1. nice! Great find and will definitely look this place up next time I’m in Baltimore which in the past has been once a year!

  2. I’m so bummed I didn’t know you we’re in Baltimore! I love your site and tips and have begun my journey to a natural way of living. Hope I can catch up with you next time you’re here! So glad you enjoyed your stay!

    Katie

  3. Wow, this looks like my dream hotel and great inspiration for my future home! I’ll have to come check out the expo sometime and a book a room here 🙂

  4. This is my kind of place. I’ve never stayed in a hotel–ever–where I could get my morning green juice. Very very cool. I wish there were more like this, they need to do a national chain.
    xo
    Eco Mama

  5. Love the hotel and now when we stay in Baltimore that will be on our list. Great meetin you yesterday in WF

    Best,
    Sandy from WFoods

    1. Hi Sandy!!!! So glad I can put a face to the name – I enjoyed meeting you as well. Have a very happy holiday season!

  6. First off – LOVE your blog and all the research you put into it!

    I’m totally not trying to be a pessimist here – but I just wonder how you know for sure when you visit restaurants, hotels, etc. that say they are feeding you organic un-processed food you are sure it’s true?

    Unfortunately where I live (mid-Missouri) I don’t have to worry about it – because there are no restaurants or hotels serving un-processed or organic food : ( – but it is a question I’ve wondered : )

  7. I was scrolling down the page, when I came across this article and briefly skimmed over “Zekes Coffee”, and thought, “Shut the front door! Food babe was just in my backyard: Baltimore”. Ahh, I wish I woulda known. You have such amazing, insightful articles. Keep doing your thing

    P.s. This was my first comment!!!
    Shane

  8. Hi,

    I am new to your website, but I have been looking to get into the whole organic and non GMO foods and chemical-free products for a while, and your website gave me the decisive kick in the butt to actually start it. I have started to clean out the beauty drawer and switch foods, and while I was looking through the useful info of your website, I noticed that although you had lots of info on skin care products, there was not much on intim washes. I don’t know if many women use that (and instead use regular body wash) but I would like to switch from the chemically (and alcohol???) laden ones that I have been using and find something more natural. I was wondering if you had done any research on that and if you have any suggestions.

    Thank you, and thank you for the kick in the butt to get my life changing switch going 🙂

  9. WOW this is so awesome I had to share on my Whole New Momma page, AND my personal FB. This is so close to where I live, yet far enough away that it could count as a vacation (in my book), plus I have a bday coming up this month! It would be soooo awesome to stay here. Thanks for reviewing your experience for us all to read. You rock!

    1. I love taking “vacation” in a hotel in uptown Charlotte! It doesn’t matter how close it is….it is still getting away. Hope you get to go for your birthday!

  10. Great report, inspiring! I know they use CozyPure bedding, how did you like the bedding? <<Good subject for a blog post!!!! (Discussion of natural bedding types, brands, etc.)

  11. I live in Baltimore and the Agora Market is hands down my favorite little quiet reprieve. The green juice, kale salads (add avocado and tomato) and the chickpea patties are literally second to none! So glad you found our little honey pot. 😉

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