The Bravern sets a place for local home-chef's heaven Sur La Table

The first Sur La Table store opened at Pike Place Market in 1972, filled with professional kitchen accoutrements that were, at the time, hard for the home cook to find. Original owner Shirley Collins scoured the world for the high-quality premium cookware and accessories that Sur La Table has become synonymous with. The company was sold in 1995 to Seattle's Behnke family, who began opening other Sur La Table stores in other cities almost immediately.

 

In September, the company opened their first Seattle-area store in 13 years at The Bravern, bringing to Bellevue their stellar product lines such as copper cookware from French company Mauviel 1830 and the stainless collection from Belgium's Demeyere.

The partnership between The Bravern and Sur La Table is a good one, with The Bravern having been modeled on a European shopping experience and Sur La Table having been inspired by the Parisian kitchen store Collins discovered while on a visit to France.

Located on the ground level of The Bravern, right off of Northeast Eighth Street, the store embodies Parisian style, with features such as wrought iron gating and black-and-white striped awnings. Copper-colored finials on closer inspection are actual lemon and lime juicers that have been coated, and the door pulls are rolling pins.

The store boasts a full wall of coffee makers, each of which is available for demonstration. Staff members are more than happy to make customers a complimentary cappuccino to show off the automated wonder of a Nespresso or Jura machine.

An expanded knife section comes complete with carrots to test-drive any blade, and a full cook top and oven allows for classes and demos from local chefs such as Tom Douglas and John Howie.

Sur La Table employs over 2,000 people nationwide and, in a time when many retailers are operating on a skeleton crew, they are hiring help for the holiday season -- during which they almost double their staff.

Additionally, Sur La Table is committed to stocking artisan-made products. Explains media relations manager Susanna Linse: "Our customer wants handmade and hand-painted tabletop pieces from Europe, not China. Many companies have gone out of business because of the recession. With 80 percent of our tabletop lines exclusive to Sur La Table, we're helping many of these artisans stay in business."

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