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Best of...Wait until you see what's cooking here.


Byline: The Register-Guard

Kitchen stores have a way of being either too cluttered clut·ter  
n.
1. A confused or disordered state or collection; a jumble: sorted through the clutter in the attic.

2. A confused noise; a clatter.

v.
 or not cluttered enough.

Either you're bumping into bamboo bamboo, plant of the family Gramineae (grass family), chiefly of warm or tropical regions, where it is sometimes an extremely important component of the vegetation. It is most abundant in the monsoon area of E Asia.  steamers and knocking Oxo tools off the shelves, or you're wandering half-empty aisles trying to find a butcher block Noun 1. butcher block - a thick wooden slab formed by bonding together thick laminated strips of unpainted hardwood
butcher board

slab - block consisting of a thick piece of something
 in a store that doesn't carry cutlery cutlery, various types of implements for cutting, preparing, and eating food. In addition to different kinds of knives and the steels to sharpen them, the term usually encompasses forks and spoons. .

Still, we'll take claustrophobia claustrophobia /claus·tro·pho·bia/ (-fo´be-ah) irrational fear of being shut in, of closed places.

claus·tro·pho·bi·a
n.
An abnormal fear of being in narrow or enclosed spaces.
 inducing or sparsely stocked over an Internet retailer or the local Big Box & Beyond.

Kitchen stores are becoming increasingly rare these days, and we think that's a shame. There's something nice about shopping for cookware at a store that's not staffed by a bunch of Carl's Jr.-eating twentysomethings who wouldn't know an anodized aluminum pot if it hit them in the nose ring.

For the perfect blend of clutter and room to breathe, our favorite store is south Eugene's Cook's Pots & Tabletops. It's the kind of place where you can window-shop for 20 minutes and walk away feeling like you learned something.

It's also the only kitchen store we visited where the sales staff actually tried to help us when we walked in the door. Stashed away inside the Southtowne shops, Cook's has the perfect mix of silly gadgets, colorful tabletoppers and high-end cookware.

We're not sure what Demeyere or Viking products should sell for, but we'll pay any price to hold these heavyweight pots and pans and hear from a real live human what makes the magnetic stainless line different from the brushed aluminum.

This is not the only place in town that carries Le Crusset or All-Clad. But we think it has done the best job of presenting this stuff as the sexy gear that it is. And anyone who can convince a bunch of cheapskates like us that a two-quart saucepan is worth $129 deserves some kind of special mention.

Cook's offers cooking classes and food events, too, including an upcoming dinner presented by Adam Bernstein from Adam's Place, a Friday night wine tasting Noun 1. wine tasting - a gathering of people to taste and compare different wines
assemblage, gathering - a group of persons together in one place

wine tasting ndegustación f de vinos 
 and an organic food class. Again, this isn't the only place you can find cooking instruction and a smooth-touch can opener under one roof, but it adds to the sense that this store caters to everyone from serious cooks looking to hone their techniques to bachelors shopping for their very first slotted spoon A slotted spoon is an implement used in food preparation. Most of its uses involve separating solid foods from liquids, such as taking vegetables from a pot of boiling water. A significant exception is the traditional absinthe ritual. .

So whether you're looking for Looking for

In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with.
 a class on "Fast Vietnamese" cooking or want to join the Slow Food Convivium, Cook's Pots & Tabletops is the place. And if you're considering shopping at a discount retailer for cheap cookware with a lifespan shorter than the average housefly housefly, common name of the fly Musca domestica, found in most parts of the world. The housefly, a scavenger, does not bite living animals but is dangerous because it carries bacteria and protozoans that cause many serious diseases, e.g. , at least pay a visit to your local kitchen store first.

You don't have to spend a week's wages on a fancy saucepan, but you just might want to after holding three bonded layers of corrosion-resistant steel and aluminum cookware in your hands.

Feels good, doesn't it?

Best of ... consists of a brushed aluminum outer layer with an aluminum core and stainless steel stainless steel: see steel.
stainless steel

Any of a family of alloy steels usually containing 10–30% chromium. The presence of chromium, together with low carbon content, gives remarkable resistance to corrosion and heat.
 stay-cool handles and rivets. To view the Best of ... catalog, fire up the Web archive www .registerguard.com/bestof.

BEST KITCHEN STORE Cook's Pots & Tabletops Where: 2807 Oak St. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday Phone: 338-4339 Online: www.cookspots.com

CAPTION(S):

Gisela Schmidt assembles a single-cup coffee maker at Lane County's best kitchen store: Cook's Pots & Tabletops.
COPYRIGHT 2006 The Register Guard
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Title Annotation:Entertainment; This Southtowne shop has all the ingredients: a place to putter among just enough clutter
Publication:The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)
Date:May 12, 2006
Words:546
Previous Article:FRESH SHEET.(Entertainment)
Next Article:Entertainers put variety on display.(Entertainment)
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