The Wooden Spoon

You will find it by the paint. Bright green with orange trim, two green benches out front and a rainbow flag by the door, the Wooden Spoon has been selling kitchen things on Fifth Avenue since 1971, which makes it older than almost everything around it.

It is a proper kitchen store rather than a gift shop with a whisk section. Thermometers from Thermoworks, CDN and OXO, timers by the dozen, Gurgle Pots in every size and nearly every color, and more than four hundred cookie cutter shapes, which is the sort of number that stops being a statistic and starts being a challenge.

The local shelf rewards a slow look. Caramels from Jonboy, candy from Spokandy, sauces and syrups from Washington makers, Geometry tea towels, and cleaning products from people willing to tell you what is in them.