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www.kitchenwarenews.com • SEPTEMBER 2019 • KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 9 Kiss the Cook in Wimberley, Texas BY LORRIE BAUMANN Kiss the Cook opened in Wimberley, Texas, in 2001 in a building that had been an old house. Owner Bren Isgitt and a friend who was a business partner at the time bought the house on a handshake deal on the square in Wimberley and started renovations. "It had been an old house with lots of low ceilings and little rooms," Isgitt said. "We raised the ceiling by vaulting it to the roof, adding beautiful massive structural beams." With the renovations complete, Isgitt and her partner stocked the new store with the inventory they'd moved over from the 800 square-foot shop in Abilene, Texas, that they'd been operating together since 1998. "We grew the store in three and a half years to where it was bursting at the seams," Isgitt said. "Since we were renting, we decided we could move it to somewhere we wanted to live, instead of west Texas." They held their closing sale in Abilene in June of 2001 and were moved out by the end of July. The grand opening for the new store in Wimberley was held on October 1 of 2001. "It was market day, when 20,000 peo- ple come to town," Isgitt said. "We opened that weekend, and at the end of the first day – boy, we knew we made the right move." In Wimberley, the two friends found a Texas Hill Country community of home cooks who had Food Network on their cable television, access to culinary schools in Austin and San Antonio and the incomes they could generate in city careers to sup- port their culinary aspirations. Some of their new customers were Houstonians with second homes in Wimberley where they came to relax for family weekends, and many of them were tourists who came to swim in Wimberley's famous Blue Hole, to kayak on the Blanco River and to shop in Wimberley's downtown boutiques. "It's both a weekend and a vacation place.... There are lots of good restaurants and bou- tiques," Isgitt said. "We found a real niche." Some of them wander into Kiss the Cook thinking it might be a restaurant. They're likely to laugh and tell Isgitt that they're going to need to go with the family to eat, but they'll be back afterwards to shop," Is- gitt said. "Their favorite saying – besides, 'I love this place' – is, 'If you don't have it, I don't need it.'" Inside the 1,800 square-foot store, they find an interior remodeled in 2017 by Isgitt and HTI Buying Group President, KC Lapi- ana. They repainted the store, which hadn't been touched since it had opened in 2001, put in new laminate flooring and replaced the old grid system for gadgets with a slat wall. They also replaced some of the fixtures that had been donated by manufacturers along the way with new units that matched. That opened up the aisles so they were ac- cessible for wheelchairs. "It was hard to get a wheelchair around [before the remodel], and now it's not hard at all," Isgitt said. "The slat wall allowed hanging products that had maybe been in bins. KC really did help organize my store." A central island displays best sellers, in- cluding the Chic Wrap plastic wrap dis- penser and Bee's Wrap and silicone and stainless steel reusable straws. "People from Austin want sustainable products," Isgitt said. "They don't want products that go into the trash.... The customers are really con- scious of wanting products that they can reuse, that don't hurt the environment." Lekue's silicone bowl covers, FreshPaper and Green Savers from OXO that help pro- duce stay fresh longer appeal to the same customers, she added. Against the wall, a 40-foot slat wall is packed with gadgets like the Zyliss Easy Pull Food Processor that appeals to Texans who make their own salsa frequently, and OXO's Mini Mandolin that helps Isgitt her- self keep her fingers safe when she's making her favorite Brussels sprout salads. "Our goal is to encourage people to cook more at home and to make cooking fun," she said. "I like Chef'n's Brussels Sprouts Corer also." The Chop Combo, a cutting board with magnets on the back designed by an Austin architect is another favorite product. It pairs with a magnetic bar designed to be adhered to the kitchen backsplash with a strip of Velcro hook and loop fastener. "The cutting board coordinates so it clamps to the knife bar and covers the knives when you're not using it," Isgitt said. "He invented that, and he markets it here at our store." When she's cooking at home, Isgitt en- joys making lasagna that she bakes in her Emile Henry baking dish. "I love that Nex- Trend Garlic Twist, and I'm using the Tra- montina cookware now," she said. "Most of my customers have a favorite chef they fol- low, like Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. They love her and her recipe books. I'm a huge Tyler Florence fan. I love his receipes. That's me." For more information, visit www.kissthecookwimberley.com. KN

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