Would you believe that we have the ultimate kitchen supply place right downtown, here in Montreal? Cuisine Gourmet is a cook's paradise. They stock most major brands of kitchen equipment and lots of peripheral stuff like gadgets, graters, glasses and grill pans. It was actually comparable to some of the uppity places in California. Mind you, this is not a restaurant-supply place, but one for home cooks. (It didn't seem like the kind of place that would be happy about photos so I didn't take any, but presumably their website will be up soon.)
I was almost immediately able to find what I'd been looking for on eBay — a Cuisipro Accutec Extension Grater and I also bought an OXO Good Grips pastry brush. Curious, I went on eBay to see how I would have fared if I had bought both there. Surprise surprise: with shipping the grater would have been CAD $36.72. The brush would have been CAD $10.58, with a total of $47.31. The total with tax at Cuisine G? $48.29, less than a dollar's difference.
I'm pretty sure that when you get into the higher-ticket items, like All-Clad pans or food processors, you're going to be better off on eBay, but this was a great surprise.
They have a great selection, far better than La Soupière's, with a full line of Microplane, Le Creuset, and OXO et. al., so there's no excuse: get down there immediately and snag that potato ricer post-haste.
When I was waiting six months for my paycheck I told myself that I would visit that store once I got paid. I completely forgot about it - if the vets do not clean out my purse tomorrow, I shall drop by there this weekend.
ReplyDeleteYou'll see me haunting the aisles.
ReplyDeleteWeird, we visited a couple months ago and were underwhelmed. There was this feeling of superficiality to the place. I couldn't put my finger on it, but everything seemed just a tad chi-chi. Something about the staff not knowing what the products were really used for. Maybe I simply happened on a bad day.
ReplyDeleteFor the same stuff, I prefer the Dante hardware store or, and yes, I admit it, Williams Sonoma in Burlington.
Yeah, it definitely isn't homey like Dante. The staff are young know-nothings that belong in a Gap store. But the offerings are nice.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the ultimate in kitchen & cooking tools is still Les Touilleurs on Laurier.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely kitchen porn. It's such an inviting space, with great tools (ok, maybe not the cheapest around).
But the best thing about it is the staff. Knowledeable, friendly and always willing to engage in a conversation about your latest cooking project.
With all these things combined, the atmosphere and experience can't be beat.