I was running errands on Clement Street and happened to notice this store at #130 (opposite B-Star). I’d been to the Berkeley location years ago but I don’t get to Berkeley much these days (certainly not that part of Berkeley). They said they’ve been open three weeks. Good selection of tinned and jarred stuff, rices, biscuits, wines and sherries, vacuum-packed sausages and sliced jamons in a fridge, some cheeses. Prices seem a little high but not excessively so (meaning they’re probably normal for SF).
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I love the original Spanish Table location in Seattle.
Let’s see, we gave you Spanish Table and Sur la Table, and we got Peet’s? Doesn’t really seem fair…
Considering you traded us Starbucks for Peets It’s not a bad deal.
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No, we blighted the entire world with Starbucks.
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Hi, Cath:
Spanish Table is in the lower reaches of Pike Place Market–it faces onto the next street below the Market, Western. If you visit, you would also do well to stop into Paris Grocery next door.
Also in the upper Market, there’s also Kitchen Basics–not a lot of true cookware, but overall a better kitchen store than SLT.
Aloha,
Kaleo
Thanks, k, for all the advice. Over the years I’ve become disenchanted with SLT. Obviously catering to tourists. I don’t know how much time we’re going to have BUT we’re in the process of buying a TINY condo in North Seattle so we’ll be back regularly. Yippee!
In conjunction with my pan project, I was recently in the downtown SF SLT. They had precisely THREE lines of clad cookware! The Seattle store’s a little better, but even they are morphing into a W-S.
Good comparison. 
But, hey, let’s face it…neither you (especially) nor I need much of anything. But I still like trolling 
Well, yesterday I needed a replacement caraffe for my treasured nickel-plated Bodum French press. I went into the flagship SLT, and the associate handed me the boxed item. I’d brought the frame with me, and she rolled her eyes when I insisted we make sure the two fit. They didn’t, but then she insisted on forcing the marriage. It was a minor miracle the glass didn’t break. She rolled her eyes a second time when I said it definitely would shatter with any thermal expansion.
Ignorant, patronizing service is instantly punished, so no sale. I went across the Market to Kitchen Basics, where I will be shopping from now on. They had both the Bodum and Bon Jour caraffes; the latter was a perfect fit.
Something happened to SLT a few years ago; they got rid of a lot of the obscure stuff you could count on to find in the corners, and got really slick and market-savvy. (At least the Berkeley one did, and the SF one continues the tradition.) May be useful for some but not really aimed at me any more.
[Edit: I cannot resist adding a story about snooty service. We were in Crate and Barrel in downtown SF, a couple of decades ago, and I found some nice small glasses. I’d been struck how wine was often served in simple tumblers in Italy, and wanted something like that, but a bit smaller. I found these simple cylindrical glasses, and bought four of them. While we were at the cashier, I mentioned something about drinking wine out of them, and the cashier, all of twenty, looked at me and said, “These are votive candleholders.” I said, “Well, I plan to drink wine out of them.” She got a story out of it, and I got a story out of it.]
I think you’re right. However, it was many years ago, right after they decided to expand (but before it happened) that I went to the Seattle SLT in search of a larding needle. Not only did they not have any, but no one in the store knew what a larding needle was. I’ve found the same level of ignorance there with cutlery and copper cookware.
Remind me to tell the story sometime of trying to get their help with a replacement part for one of their fish poacher.s If I retold it now, I’d get so pissed off I wouldn’t sleep tonight.
Make sure you try the lemon-stuffed olives in the glass jar - addictive!
Its fashionable to bash chains for the sake of it, and Starbucks might not be the best coffee, but it’s far better than 95% of what existed before in the US and is almost single-handedly responsible for raising the standard of coffee in this country by about 1000%.
It’s the “for the sake of it” you got wrong.
We are obsessed with the anchovy stuffed olives. The come in yellow and white cans. Amazing stuff
I love those too as well as the Palacios Cured Chorizo. Anyone else have their favorites?
True, and a sad comment on 95% of American coffee before Starbucks. Similarly, Chipotle raised the standard of burritos in most of the country…but it’s still a crappy burrito.
Not sure I see the point of that piece. Isn’t “Dolce” kind of a clue that there’s, y’know, sugar in that drink?
