by Chrysa Smith

Like a kid in a candy store, I enter the Williams Sonoma store in my local mall—then I go wild.
They’ve got about every nifty, trendy necessity I could ever need for my kitchen.
I just stopped in for their great espresso maker sale: 40% off Nespresso machines—just what my husband wanted this year. And for good reason. The end of an old machine has left him drinking instant espresso. And that, my gastronomic gurus, just doesn’t cut it.
While there, I smelled one of their many cake mixes baking and sampled some of their peppermint bark–one of my favorites. There was a pot of water boiling atop the stove located behind the sales desk—just like home. And it doesn’t end at the front door.
If you log onto their website, you can be transported to a world of culinary delights. I wandered there purely by accident while exploring the possibilities of scoring some frozen croissant dough. Not to be a kitchen snob, but those tin can croissant packs in the local fridge section just don’t do it for me. I want a luscious, flaky croissant—the type you find in a fine European bakery. So, long story short, I’m awaiting my frozen package courtesy of Williams Sonoma—also at a 20% discount.
There’s all sorts of food options on there, with some quite pricey cakes and other delicacies, but they’ve got it. In short, I can get fine restaurant quality food with the click of a finger. There are wine clubs, cheese and if you sign up for their credit card, you can access culinary outings that would be just divine.
This Christmas, I’m serving up two meals. A hearty Christmas breakfast and a fine late afternoon dinner. The croissants will be served at breakfast; with espresso finishing the meal at dinnertime. In between, I will be using some of their cute plates and hoping that Santa will be dropping another WS gift card under the tree this year. If so, you can find me there on Dec. 26th, taking advantage of my grown up Christmas gift list—at hopefully 20-50% off.
Williams Sonoma is part of the Pottery Barn group of stores, so you know it’s a shop in touch with the hip and trendy. Check them out at your local mall or at: