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Top Kitchenware Stores

Best Kitchenware Stores
(credit: williams-sonoma.com)

While department stores and mass retailers stock enough gizmos and gadgets to fill a kitchen many times over, a well-equipped kitchenware store is heaven on earth for anyone who loves to cook. The best of the best carry a variety of imported and U.S.-made brands of every conceivable kitchen item, including quality cookware and bakeware, knives, small appliances, and much more. Most also sell gorgeous tabletop items, including dishes, serving pieces, flatware, glassware, table linens and more. Here are some of our favorites.

Compleat Gourmet
(credit: compleatgourmet.com)

Compleat Gourmet & Gifts

7592 S. University Blvd.
Centennial, CO 80122
(303) 290-6023
compleatgourmet.com

This friendly store is a magnet for south suburban cooking enthusiasts, people who entertain frequently and those who just like to set a pretty table. Owners Barb Trexler and Joan Dennen stock it with mid-priced, well-designed and well-made goods. The inventory runs to cookware, table and kitchen linens, decorative items, aprons (not always that easy to find these days), tableware, flatware and glassware. There are baking pans of every size, shape and material and gadgets galore. In fact, the Compleat Gourmet is the place for potato scrubbers, silicone poaching pods, safety graters, whisks, electric pepper mills, tongs and much more.

Peppercorn
(credit: peppercorn.com)

The Peppercorn

1235 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 449-5847
peppercorn.com

Spread across a pair of adjacent storefronts on Boulder's Pearl Street Mall, Peppercorn is loaded to the rafters with an unsurpassed array of cookware, housewares, gadgets, kitchen appliances, gourmet foodstuffs, linens, fine china and decorative accessories for the home. Ceiling-high bookshelves hold cookbooks devoted to a particular cuisine, ingredient, cooking technique or geographic area.  Miraculously the store is logically organized and not at all chaotic, despite the enormous inventory. A trip to Peppercorn is a pure and simple pleasure for the food fanatic and cooking connoisseur. Looking for bargains? Peppercorn participates in the Pearl Street Mall's sidewalk sales. Even better deals are at the occasional warehouse sales.

Sur La Table
(credit: surlatable.com)

Sur La Table

Cherry Creek Shopping Center
3000 East 1st Ave., Space 2230
Denver, CO 80206
(303) 780-7800

Belmar
343 South Teller St. (Alameda & Wadsworth area; former Villa Italia site)
Lakewood, CO 80226
(303) 936-4677
surlatable.com

Sur La Table has a cutting-edge reputation for the latest and greatest products. Buyers scour the world - France, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Croatia, England -- to seek out new and innovative items The 12,000-item inventory features cookware, bakeware, small appliances, cutlery, kitchen tools, table linens, tableware, both common and hard-to-find gadgets, and seasonal and specialty foods. You'll find brands like All Clad, Calphalon, Henckels, Krups, Le Creuset, OXO, Wüsthoff and many more. If the local store doesn't have what you need or crave, it can be quickly ordered.

What's Cooking
(credit: whatscookinginc.net)

What's Cooking

Atlas Valley Shopping Center
2770 Arapahoe Rd.
Lafayette, CO 80026
(303) 666-0300
whatscookinginc.net

Among the well-known brands of appliances, cookware, bakeware and accessories are All-Clad, Cuisinart, Stonewall Kitchen, Waring and Zyliss. What's Cooking shows a lot of baking equipment and canning tools, perhaps as a last reminder of Lafayette's fast-disappearing agricultural roots. Copper, glass, wooden and pewter pieces abound too - some to cook or serve in, some just for show. Gourmet food products such as imported cookies, breadsticks, oils and vinegars are obligatory these days and the store carries them in abundance. The store also boasts a full kitchen in the back of the retail sales floor, perfect for classes and demonstration.

Williams Sonoma
(credit: williams-sonoma.com)

Williams-Sonoma

Four mall locations (Cherry Creek, Aspen Grove, FlatIron Crossing and Park Meadows)
williams-sonoma.com

Williams-Sonoma initially made its reputation as a purveyor of high-quality cookware and knives imported from France. Today, each store offers a dazzling array of stylish and practical products for the kitchen and home from Mauviel copper pots made in Normandy since 1830 to Dualit toasters from England (which carry Rolls-Royce-type heft and durability). A vast inventory includes both formal and funkier tableware, flatware and glasses, kitchen and table linens, bakeware, appliances and even the endearing and useful little objects that company founder Chuck Williams dismissed in the early days by saying, "I don't do gadgets."

-- Mile High Cheapskates Claire Walter & Laura Daily keep Denver/Boulder residents informed about the latest deals, discounts and freebies at MileHighOnTheCheap.com

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