The Gourmet Warehouse is located at 1340 E Hastings Street and Clark Drive in Vancouver. It is a paradise that is over 1800 square feet, filled with foodie fun and goodness. It sounded so fantastic, I contacted the company and asked if I could come for a bit of a tour and they said yes!
Check out my super-fast tour of the store! Complete with superhero music and my own homemade graphics!
This place is HUGE! And for a place that has a warehouse feel, I honestly could not have felt more at home.
I also could have spent years in there checking out every little tool and ingredient.
The baking ingredient section had my knees weak with all the essences, extracts, decorative sprinkles and flavours…
There were also novelty items that made me smile like the Downton Abbey The Republic of Tea collection.
And onion goggles!
Upstairs you will find every Le Creuset item you could possibly imagine, including a pot lid which I purchased for my lime green 70s Le Creuset casserole dish.
Upstairs you will find a stunning kitchen where you can take cooking classes! The backstory of the warehouse is steeped in being a place for learning about cooking and baking and morphing into this enormous resource for tools and ingredients.
Classes are typically 20 people and there is usually a theme like Italian, Thai… Once or twice a week different instructors and guest chefs come to teach cooking and baking techniques.
As someone who is obsessed with copper, there was so much copper eye candy for me to get lost in.
I even got to do some test testing like these Virginia salted peanuts and white balsamic vinegar! So delicious, exciting and fun.
It is not all chi-chi either. They had fun snack foods like Covered Bridge chips all the way from New Brunswick! I was hoping they had their new donair flavour but they did have sloppy joe and loaded hot dog.
I did make some purchases other than the lid for my dish. I bought pistachio flavour oil so I can make homemade pistachio ice cream, my favourite.
I also got blood orange extract because I want to learn how to make my own flavoured molded truffles.
I do hope The Gourmet Warehouse considers adding chocolate- and candy-making classes in the fall to their repertoire. Wouldn’t it be amazing to make your own chocolates and candies for Christmas gifts?
Me waving to my reflection in the KitchenAid mixer
That is just a short little window into the world at The Gourmet Warehouse. Honestly, watch the video to really get the grand tour!
This place is so dangerously wonderful! It felt like the adult Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory for this foodie. Without the scary and weird stuff of course. I honestly did not want to leave and everyone was so helpful and kind.
Maybe next time I will be even more brave and buy a paper chef’s hat like I have always wanted! That is the thing about The Gourmet Warehouse. Every foodie dream you can think of is there. From chef’s jackets, to smoking guns (seriously), copper pots and bowls to pretty cake stands. It is all here! And if YOU can’t be here you can still shop online.
I really thought I was going to have to purchase pistachio and blood orange extracts online and had serious doubts I would ever find anyone who sold Le Creuset lids locally. They passed every shopping test I threw at them and so much more. I can not wait to go back!
Wow! I’d love to spend an entire afternoon there just browsing!
You would love it Debra! They had so many fun items and extraordinary tools and so many hard-to-find items. Just about everything I could come up with that is impossible to find everywhere else is pretty much at this store. I am hoping to take some classes there one day too.
Suzie I hope you had a chance to meet Karen McSherry , I only saw her once when I was there and she was very busy so didn’t get the chance to meet her myself . Nevertheless a GREAT blog , shows all the sides of this amazing store.
Take it from me Debra an afternoon isn’t near enough time . I’ve been there a half dozen times and each time found something new . Have not been there for a while and I think I’m over due .
Often you’ll find something to incite you to new cooking adventures and then there’s THE TOYS !!! They are so bad my wife takes my debit card when I go (not really) but I have to really hold myself back.
This place is Vancouver’s “Disney Land for Foodies” , nothing more, nothing less !!!
Yes I did, for a brief second! And thank you! I’m glad you feel like the post really did the space justice. The toys are my favourite part, so much fun. It’s true, you could spend so much money there, the copper alone!!! Perfect description, Disney Land for Foodies indeed!