There’s a new cook in this kitchen store!
The owner of a Williamsburg culinary-supply shop is hard at work stocking shelves inside the Brooklyn Heights space recently vacated by beloved retailer A Cook’s Companion, where she will open the third outpost of her homegrown cookware empire next month.
“I’m featuring the same kind of things. There’s a heavy focus on bakeware, cookware, a really nice selection of aprons and linens,” said Natasha Amott, a Park Sloper and the owner of Whisk on Bedford Avenue near N. Fourth Street.
And to the delight of bubble-loving Brooklynites, Amott is delivering on her now-retired predecessor’s promise that whoever moves in to the store will stock Soda Stream machines and the carbon-dioxide canisters they use to turn still water into seltzer, she said.
The shopkeeper said she is so dedicated to serving those local fizz-lovers who’ve been without their go-to Soda Stream source since A Cook’s Companion closed in February that she intends to start selling the gas before her planned opening on May 1.
“I’m actually hoping to start filling those while in the store doing our renovations,” Amott said.
The Atlantic Avenue Whisk store will feature goods familiar to Companion customers in an effort to provide a similar shopping experience to the shuttered retailer’s loyalists, according to Amott, who said some of the products will be new to patrons of her other shops in Williamsburg and the outer borough of Manhattan.
“I’m bringing a couple of brands of cookware that Cook’s sold, but we don’t sell at Whisk. I want neighbors to still find the pan they really like, or want to get for their mothers,” she said. “I’m trying my hardest to continue those.”
And her strategy of catering to the community is already paying off, according to Amott, who said many passersby of the storefront between Court and Clinton streets — which will also sell knives, coffee, tea, and cookbooks — express curious delight when they see her setting up shop inside.
“Everyday I’ve been there, a number of people pass by, knock on the window, want to talk — there’s so much excitement,” she said. “I’ve really been struck by what a wonderful neighborhood it is, and as a store owner, it feels lovely.”
