In answer to a blog visitor's question ("Claire, I am looking for a store in Denver metro to buy my wife a set of kitchen knifes. Please advise. Thanks."), I am answering here because it is a topic of interest to many cooks (and many people playing Santa to cooking enthusiasts):
Knife sets are readily a
vailable at stores like Macy's (local papers have been running coupons) and Bed Bath & Beyond (coupons/flyers in Sunday papers, plus coupons in the mail). These outlets do sell name-brand sets but sometimes not the top-line models. Williams-Sonoma has retail stores in the Cherry Creek (Denver), Aspen Grove (Littleton), Flatirons Crossing (Broomfield) and Park Meadows (Littleton) shopping centers. (Wüsthof set shown at left)Many enthusiastic cooks prefer to assemble their own sets based on the knives they prefer. For instance, a 10-inch chef's knife is considered a critical tool in the kitchen. I have small hands and find my 8-inch chef's knife more comfortable and hardly ever use the longer one. Cooks who don't use bone-in poultry or meat won't need a cleaver, and people who buy sliced rather than loaf bread probably will never use a bread knife. Some sets include kitchen shears, but if your wife already has a pair she likes, you might be paying for redundancy. If you buy a set, just make sure it includes a sharpening steel so that she can keep her knives in good cutting shape.
Whether or not you decide to buy a set or individual knives (and a holder to protect the blades), here are some locally owned stores to consider:
- Rolling Stone - The Knife Guys, a mobile knife-sharpening service whose trucks also carry a small inventory of kitchen utensils, opened a retail store called The Knife Guys at 1500 West Hampden Avenue, Englewood. Once your wife has the knives, alert her that home cooks can take their knives there or to cooking schools and restaurants that Rolling Stone trucks regularly visit for occasional professional sharpening.
- Peppercorn sells so many Henckel knives that they are always offered at 20 percent off at this downtown Boulder store at 1235 Pearl Street.
- Compleat Gourmet & Gifts, 7592 South University Boulvevard, Centennial, is a fine, long-running retailer in the southern sururbs.
- Lafayette's What's Cooking at 2770 Arapahoe Road has a good selection of kitchen tools and tabletop items.
- If you consider Fort Collins to be in the greater Denver area, there's a fine kitchenware store called The Cupboard at 152 South College Avenue.
- Denver Cutlery, 1607 West 55th Street, Denver
- The Restaurant Source, 5005 Washington Street, Denver
- Cen-Tex Supply, 2845 29th Street, Boulder
- Tundra Specialties, 6390 Gunpark Drive, Boulder
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4 comments:
For those with limited kitchen space, may I recommend wall-mounted magnetic knife holders? They let you keep the knives right next to wherever you usually do your knifework, without having to surrender any precious countertop real estate. Plus you don't have to worry about the dreaded knife-block-tip-over.
Good suggstion, Rob.
Kitchen tools? Be cautious when selecting and accumulating them.
It is hard to emphasize the usefulness of GOOD kitchen tools for cooking. Without them, cooking is a chore and a cook quickly loses interest in the kitchen. In fact, I devoted a full chapter to this subject: Kitchen Tools to Keep, Kitchen Tools to Trash in my new book (Nov/08):
Tried and True Recipes from a Caterer’s Kitchen—Secrets of Making Great Foods
www.eloquentbooks.com/TriedandTrueRecipes.html
www.howfoodswork.blogspot.com
Check it out!
There is another restaurant supply place at 64th and Federal called Standard Restaurant Supply. I tend to go there for kitchen gadgets for home and work.
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