Quick Take
Iconic French brand Le Creuset opened its first retail “shop within a shop” in California at Toque Blanche in downtown Santa Cruz, bringing the largest selection of its trademark enameled cast iron cookware on the West Coast to Pacific Avenue.
In early June, Toque Blanche, an independent cookware store in downtown Santa Cruz, reopened the front of its store to display a colorful collection of Le Creuset cookware. On sunny days, light from Pacific Avenue streams in through the large front window, gleaming off the iconic French brand’s glossy enamel in shades of peach, cherry red and azure.
Toque Blanche isn’t just stocking up. It partnered with the century-old French brand as an official Le Creuset Shop – the first in California and one of only six in the nation. It now offers the widest selection of Le Creuset products on the West Coast, according to Toque Blanche owner Charles Nelson. Le Creuset also provided its merchandising fixtures to help create the dramatic display, meant to show off the newest colors of its signature enameled cast iron.
It’s not the first partnership the store has had with a distinguished brand, says Nelson. Toque Blanche – for the French name of the traditional white chef’s hat – is also the first store in the Bay Area to offer Made In cookware, a new company that’s bringing its restaurant-quality cookware to the home market, and one of the businesses able to distribute the durable Swedish Ankarsrum stand mixers. In 2017, Toque Blanche was awarded Retailer of the Year by the International Housewares Association, says Nelson.
A stroll through the Pacific Avenue store also reveals rustic yet sophisticated Chamba cookware, handmade in the village of La Chamba, Colombia. The natural clay fires to a striking, glossy black, and comes in round, sloping shapes ranging from wide-mouthed display pieces to nearly spherical stock pots.
The store prides itself both on its selection of high-quality products and a knowledgeable staff, says Nelson. He opened the first Toque Blanche in Half Moon Bay in 2006 (it closed in 2017), and purchased the 17-year-old Chefworks store in 2013, renaming it Toque Blanche. Prior to that, he co-founded an electronics equipment company in Silicon Valley, but pivoted to retail when a “great” space became available. “I loved cooking and had worked as a cook in restaurants while going to school, so I had some background and ideas. I wanted to get commercial-quality cookware into the hands of home chefs,” says Nelson.
Toque Blanche also offers a selection of knives “for every budget,” says Nelson. For instance, staff can help customers select a knife, among German, American, French and Japanese makers, and demonstrate how to properly use and care for it, he says. The shop also offers knife-sharpening services, which he recommends indulging in once or twice a year.
In the back of the store, customers can taste a variety of olive oils and vinegars and learn about different ways to incorporate them into home recipes.
While Le Creuset’s Dutch ovens and casserole dishes are the brand’s biggest seller, Nelson says he’s a fan of some of its lesser-known products, like the French presses and kettles. A ribbon-cutting for the new store-within-a-store is planned for Friday, July 12, and will kick off a weekend of demonstrations, raffles and discounts to celebrate the collaboration.
1527 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz; mytoque.com.
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