The kitchenware and culinary experiential retailer is expanding its gourmet footprint.
Seattle-based kitchenware brand Sur La Table is moving full steam ahead with new store openings across the country after being acquired by Marquee Brands and CSC Generation in 2020. The specialty cookware retailer recently reentered the Massachusetts market with a store at Natick Mall and has also opened new stores in Upstate New York, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Nebraska. A store in Darien, Connecticut, is planned for September.
Founded by Shirley Collins at Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1972, Sur La Table quickly gained a reputation as a curator of high-quality culinary products and tools that appealed to both professional and home chefs. “There wasn’t a place in Seattle at the time to buy any kind of cooking equipment — nothing,” said Collins, who at the time way making her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The first single woman in the state of Washington to apply for a bank loan, Collins’ store quickly became a mecca for local cooking enthusiasts. But it was the support of celebrity chefs — including Jacques Pépin and Julia Child — that really put Sur La Table on the map. “She [Julia] was always very kind about the store and about me, too,” Collins added.
A pioneer in experiential retail, Sur La Table first launched cooking classes at its Berkeley, California, store in 1996. The success of those classes quickly grew into America’s largest hands-on cooking class program. Today, Sur La Table’s resident chefs teach 40,000 cooking classes to more than 380,000 people per year in their store kitchens and online.
Now, along with its brick-and-mortar expansion strategy, Sur La Table is also expanding its in-store class roster, adding additional class times for its popular Date Night Series and launching another season of its Kids & Teens Cooking Classes — one of the largest culinary programs in the country for kids. Along with cooking classes, Sur La Table is elevating the in-store experience for guests with cooking and product demonstrations, one-on-one training sessions, and an “Ask a Chef” program where customers can get advice from resident chefs and culinary experts while shopping at the store.
—Shirley Collins, Sur La Table founder
“Sur La Table is a beloved brand which stands for quality,” said Carolyn D’Angelo. then-president of the Home Division at Marquee Brands, in a press release about the acquisition. “It complements our strong Home and Culinary portfolio. Its storied legacy along with its multi-channel platform featuring experiential brick and mortar stores, a thriving e-commerce business, and unparalleled education offerings presented an incredibly compelling opportunity.”
With more than 50 years of cooking savoir-faire, Sur La Table boasts 59 locations in 22 states, including locations at Natick Mall in Massachusetts, Mizner Park in Florida, The Shops at La Cantera in Texas, and Tysons Galleria in Virginia. Brookfield Properties is proud to partner with this female-founded brand whose mission is to create happiness through the cooking and sharing of food.
- 4 Brookfield Properties locations
- 59 U.S. Brick-and-mortar stores
- $6.01 billion U.S. kitchenware & cookware industry
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