A year and a half after moving the store to Camden, owner Gail Montgomery said she has moved The Well Tempered Kitchen back to its former Waldoboro location because business was better there.
Montgomery said she first moved to Camden when she put the Waldoboro farm on Route 1 where her business was (and now again, is) located up for sale.
The area, the town, and the retail space in Camden were all lovely, but being a block away from Main Street ended up being more of a problem than expected, she said.
“Business was better here, so I decided to move back here,” Montgomery said in an interview Nov. 27 at her store in Waldoboro.
The Well Tempered Kitchen carries a wide variety of cookware, bake ware, knives, and other related gadgets. “Everything you need to cook with and entertain with,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery has been in the business of selling kitchen gear since the mid-1970s when she started working at the Hudson Valley Bazaar in Nyack, N.Y. She eventually bought out the business, and renamed it The Well Tempered Kitchen when she moved it to Waldoboro in 1994.
Montgomery is still trying to sell her farm or lease it, and if it does sell, she hopes to lease the space where the store is located.
“People are used to this, they like it,” Montgomery said, adding that the response since she reopened in Waldoboro on Nov. 4 has been very positive.
In recent years, Montgomery has started embodying a new philosophy in her personal and business life – partly due to the recent economy, and because of changes in her personal situation.
“I’m really seeing the need to – this sounds strange coming from a retailer – buy less, buy better, buy essential – what you absolutely need, not every gidgety-gadget that comes down the pike,” she said.
Though over the years Montgomery already tried to carry only quality items she knew worked and knew would last in her inventory, she has continued refining her choices.
“I’ve honed it down to essentials, kitchen essentials,” she said.
Montgomery began to think critically about what she – or anyone – might need in their kitchens when she had to pare down her living situation to put the farm up for sale.
“It’s really good to have tools that are really, really useful in different ways,” she said.
Still, every kitchen needs essentials like good cookware and good knives, Montgomery said.
“They’re just tools for the job of cooking, and the better the tool, the better job you’re going to be doing,” she said.
Though quality is a priority, Montgomery said she tries to buy products made in Maine or the U.S., and as eco-friendly as she can.
Along with the equipment she carries, Montgomery said she is hoping to bring cookbooks back into the store – an item she stopped carrying when she moved the store to Camden.
“People still like to have cookbooks,” Montgomery said. “They like to give them as gifts, they like to look at them.”
She also is looking into adding some raw ingredients to her inventory, but only items to cook with, such as salts, olive oil, vinegar and mustards.
The Well Tempered Kitchen is located 122 Atlantic Highway (Route 1) in Waldoboro. Find it on Facebook, visit http://www.welltemperedkitchen.com, or call 563-5762.
