Kitchenware Store on Atlantic Avenue: Why Cooks Love Whisk

Whisk is the independent kitchenware store that Brooklyn cooks rely on for the pan they actually need, not the one a catalog says they should want. Whisk, at 197 Atlantic Avenue between Court Street and Clinton Street, sits on the stretch where Brooklyn Heights meets Cobble Hill. Inside, carbon steel woks hang beside paella pans, German and Japanese knives fill a counter case, and coffee gear crowds the shelves near the register. It is small enough to see in twenty minutes and stocked deeply enough to keep a serious cook there for an hour.

Whisk first opened in November 2008, run by a team of Brooklyn locals, and became a fixture on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. A Manhattan branch followed on Broadway in the Flatiron District in 2012. The neighborhood changed faster than the shop could: in 2019 the Williamsburg store closed after its landlord asked for a 44 percent rent increase, a story Greenpointers and Time Out both covered, and the Flatiron store has since closed as well.

The Atlantic Avenue shop opened in May 2018, taking over the space of A Cook's Companion, a beloved neighborhood kitchen store that had closed. Owner Natasha Amott kept the spirit of that predecessor, a place where you can ask which skillet suits a tiny apartment stove and get a straight answer. Today it is the only Whisk storefront, which gives it the feel of a survivor on a block that has seen plenty of turnover.

Carbon steel is the shop's quiet specialty. The 12-inch Pre-Seasoned Carbon Steel Wok costs $42, light enough to toss fried rice on a home burner and already seasoned so it does not need a weekend of oven work before its first stir-fry. The 14-inch Carbon Steel Paella Pan is $39, a wide, shallow pan that also handles a sheet-pan dinner's worth of roasted vegetables. Both will darken with use, which is exactly the point.

For bakers, the Chicago Metallic 13 by 18 inch Half Sheet Pan is $25, the same size restaurant kitchens stack by the dozen and the one most cookie recipes assume. If grease spatters are the bane of your stovetop, the Frywall 12-inch Splatter Guard sells for $30; it is a silicone collar that sits inside the pan rather than a mesh lid, and it collapses flat for storage in a cramped kitchen drawer.

The knife case covers both Western and Japanese traditions. The Zwilling J.A. Henckels Four Star 7-inch Santoku is $140, a forged German blade with a molded handle that suits cooks moving up from a block-set knife. At the other extreme, the MAC 10.25-inch Yanagiba is $225, a long single-bevel slicer meant for sashimi and very thin cuts of fish; staff will explain why it is the wrong knife for chopping onions.

Sharpening is done by hand on whetstones, and the sharpener works at the counter on Saturdays from noon to 4pm, so you can watch your edge being restored. Knives can also be dropped off any day and collected a few days later. Unlike many sharpening services, Whisk takes serrated knives and kitchen shears as well, which makes it handy for the bread knife that has quietly gone dull. Wrap blades in a towel or cardboard sleeve for the trip; loose knives in a tote are a hazard on a crowded train.

The coffee shelf is one of the best reasons to stop in. The 6 Cup Chemex with Glass Handle costs $47, a pour-over brewer that doubles as a carafe on a dinner table. For espresso-style coffee without an espresso machine, the Bialetti 4 cup Brikka is $90; its pressure valve builds a light crema that the classic Moka pot cannot. Both make good housewarming gifts for a new neighbor.

Whisk also handles the unglamorous errands that keep a kitchen running. It exchanges SodaStream gas canisters in store, takes special and bulk orders for items it does not keep on the shelf, and runs a rewards card for regular customers. Online orders can be picked up free in store, usually the same day, and shipping is free within the 48 contiguous states on orders over $125.

New apartment, bare cabinets? A sensible Whisk starter kit is the $42 carbon steel wok, the $25 half sheet pan and the $140 Zwilling santoku, which comes to $207 and covers stir-frying, roasting, baking and nearly all the chopping a weeknight cook does. Add the $47 Chemex if mornings matter more than dinners. Staff are used to this question from people who just signed a lease nearby, and they will steer you away from gadgets that only do one job.

The store is open daily from 11am to 6:30pm. Saturdays are busiest because of the sharpening counter, so bring knives early in that window if you want to chat with the sharpener before a queue forms. Weekday afternoons are the quietest time to compare pans and ask questions. The aisles are tight, so a folding stroller and a small bag make browsing easier.

Atlantic Avenue rewards a slow walk. A few doors west, Sahadi's has sold Middle Eastern groceries, spices, dried fruit and nuts on this street for decades, and a bag of za'atar or Aleppo pepper pairs naturally with a new carbon steel pan. A short walk north brings you to the New York Transit Museum on Schermerhorn Street, housed in a decommissioned subway station, where vintage train cars sit on the original tracks below street level.

Whisk is at 197 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201, between Court Street and Clinton Street. The closest subway stations are Borough Hall on the 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Court Street on the R. Prices in this guide come from whisknyc.com. If you are buying carbon steel for the first time, ask staff for their seasoning routine before you leave; it saves a lot of trial and error.