Kitchen Arts
This family-owned store gets our raves for the chef (or wannabe) looking for the best items to outfit the serious kitchen. Competitive prices on brands such as Calphalon and All-Clad, but beats everyone on price for top-of-the-line cutlery. Nice selection of hard-to-find gadgets as well. 161 Newbury Street, Boston, MA .
Kitchen Arts
Price, but worth every penny. 161 Newbury St., Boston, MA .
Cake Art
It's not just for Sabbath anymore. Knowing a good thing when they saw it, the bakers at Cake Art turned their fabulous challah into a variety of other goodies like onion rolls and hot dog buns. Just make sure that's a kosher dog on that roll. 374 South Main St., Sharon, MA .
Breve Spa at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport
Sick of the assembly-line nail-salon experience? Swap your clothes for a robe and slippers, sit back in one of Breve’s five full-massage chairs, and prepare for the spa mani-pedi of your dreams. Many of the nail techs here came over from the recently shuttered Bliss Spa at the W, so they know how to turn a buff-and-polish sesh into a memorable day (see: the red-algae-infused, anti-aging “cocoon wrap”). Also upping the Zen quotient is access to the co-ed relaxation room, where you can savor a cold beverage or a light snack and forget about the hustle and bustle of the outside world. 450 Summer St., Boston, MA 02210, omnihotels.com.
ArtsEmerson
ArtsEmerson certainly brings the world to its stages. This season alone, it hosted acrobatic feats from Montreal's troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main in Traces; Isabella Rossellini in her cult-tastic one-woman show, Green Porno; an oil-drums-and-marimba reimagining of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, by South Africa's Isango Ensemble; and, from the Hub's own Israeli Stage, a North American premiere of the affecting Ulysses on Bottles. Most impressive, ArtsEmerson realizes its global vision while remaining audience-focused and community-centric. (Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston) 559 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111, artsemerson.org.
Kitchen Arts
A good cook knows a sharp knife is the fundamental ingredient of any recipe, and Kitchen Arts is the place to find a knife that will satisfy your inner Mario Batali. (It also sells sharpening steels for gourmands who want a surgeon's edge.) Once you get past the knives, you're ready for the nirvana of kitchen tools and accessories here, from tea strainers and seafood forks to copper pots and pans. 161 Newbury St., Boston, MA .
KitchenArts
Caught between bare-bones restaurant-supply stores and overstyled kitchen emporiums, home cooks in search of a good sharp knife and a turkey baster are left with meager options. They'd do well to head to KitchenArts, where the basics (colanders, oven mitts) are blessedly abundant, and the array of gadgets (gnocchi paddles, avocado slicers) has a way of making even takeout devotees want to pick up the culinary hobby. As for those knives: KitchenArts' reasonably priced blades include Forschner, Messermeister, and Wüsthof—and the staffers, who are all avid gastronomes themselves, are happy to opine on their favorites.
KitchenArts
It must be tempting for a purveyor of kitchen goods to dazzle browsers with gizmos. KitchenArts doesn't need to. True, it has some trendy doodads (equipment for making those exotic teas you bought last year during your trip to Nepal, for instance), but its raison d'être is to provide the absolute correct tool for any culinary endeavor. There's more than half a dozen types of rolling pins and just as many whisks, alongside bakeware in every size and shape, All-Clad and Le Creuset pots and pans, and an armory of knives (including reconditioned blades at cut-rate prices).
Kitchen Arts
Gadget lovers will find their utopia at this Back Bay culinary treasure trove. Need a butter curler? Kitchen Arts stocks them, along with a huge variety of pots, pans, appliances, and seemingly any tool a novice or expert chef could want. It's easy to stock up here on the little extras that make cooking fun, from a mortar and pestle for grinding your own spices to pastry bags, cutting boards, dish towels, measuring cups, and an array of knives that would make a surgeon jealous. 161 Newbury St., Boston, MA .
Ritual Arts
This small metaphysical supply store brims with incense, Buddha statuettes, and jewelry. But don't let the ritual bent scare you off—it's browser-friendly and filled with positive vibes. Maybe it's all those energy crystals. 153 Harvard Ave., Boston, MA 02134, .
Kitchen Arts
Culinary cats, get ready: Kitchen Arts is a veritable candy store for gadget-hungry chefs. Its Newbury Street shelves are packed with everything from the oddly named "clam rams" to the oddly shaped cannoli forms. Of course, purely practical items (mixing bowls, baking pans, measuring cups, storage tins) are in abundance, too, as are sleek chef's knives and showoff espresso machines. Tools like these will help you cook up the solution to any culinary conundrum. 161 Newbury St., Boston, MA .
Cake Art
Sharon may be a bit of a drive for some, but it's sure a lot closer than New York, which is where you'd have to go to find rugalah as good. 374 South Main Street, Sharon, MA .
The Art Store
Other art stores have handbaskets. This huge emporium has big shopping carts perfect for navigating the wide, immaculate, organized aisles. Start by perusing the rows of pens, pencils, and paints before moving on to the walls of sketchpads and rolls of canvas. The Art Store has all the standard fare, and then some—Kolo albums, handmade stationery, a wide array of journals. And in case aspiring artists need more help than the friendly sales staff can give, there's a selection of how-to books and in-store demonstrations every weekend that will have you creating mosaic candleholders or embossed letterhead in no time. Landmark Center, 401 Park Dr., Boston, MA .
The Art Store
Yeah, we know it's a chain. But it's got all the accessories a starving artist—or, at least, an aspiring one—could ever need. And in this case, bigger is better. The warehouse-like space is stocked with brushes, paints, pens, easels, sketchpads, and practically every doodad imaginable. From acrylics to oils, origami to crafts, most of the inventory is organized supermarket-fashion and is reasonably easy to find. Even if you're not a budding artist, there are plenty of other goodies to tempt the creative shopper: photo albums, notebooks, colorful bins, design books. Who knows? You might even find some inspiration. 401 Park Dr., Landmark Center, Boston, MA .