Williamsburg kitchen shop Whisk opened on Friday at 933 Broadway between 21st and 22nd Streets in the Flatiron District. The shop is slightly larger than the Bedford Avenue store, which has been keeping Brooklynites in Le Creuset and chopping boards since 2008.
Employee Kari Johnson tells us that 95% of the merchandise is the same as what you’ll find in Williamsburg: chefs’ tools, linens, cookbooks. The pricing remains the same, too, and the managers work to keep everything comparable with what you’ll pay on Amazon or at Macy’s. One difference: The Manhattan shop carries a larger selection of higher-end items like copper pots. There’s also less glassware in stock because Fish’s Eddy is right down the street. (“We love them,” says Johnson.)
933 Broadway used to be a novelty shop known for some of the best, weirdest signage in Manhattan. Developer Thor Equities revamped the facade, but Whisk employees worked to maintain as many of the original interior details as possible. Under the expert eye of former Nordstrom staffer Alejandra Remijio, they also stained and distressed some of the new shelving to make it look old, and brought in vintage fixtures from Kings County Salvage and FiND Home Furnishings in Brooklyn. A bake room in the back features teal-painted shelves and old-fashioned floor tiles that workers laid by hand.
This isn’t the first Manhattan location for the Brooklyn-based company, but it is the first stand-alone store. Whisk initially opened in Sixth Avenue church-turned-mall Limelight Marketplace, but left once their lease expired. Explains Johnson, “We went into Limelight because it was a good opportunity, and to dip our toe into the waters.” The idea was to expand the company’s profile, and it worked. “We did see people coming to Williamsburg saying, ‘Oh, I know you from Limelight.’ It served its purpose for us, at least.”
http://ny.racked.com/archives/2012/06/27/brooklyns_whisk_joins_the_flatiron_housewares_district.php
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