The cookie jar that inspired a whole online store. (Photograph by Heidi Swanson)
By Heather Hansman
We’ve seen plenty of pop-up restaurants, pop-up retail stores, even pop-up art galleries out here. But an online pop-up shop?
That’s the idea behind Heidi Swanson’s new QuitoKeeto, an online-only shop that opens when “the stars align and the products are right” (basically whenever they want). San Francisco-based Swanson is the brain behind the popular food blog 101 Cookbooks and won a James Beard award for her book Super Natural Ever Day, so she’s known, literally, for her good taste. Now, she’s expanding to sell locally sourced specialty food, and what she’s calling “kitchen jewelry.”
Swanson’s collections are small and themed around objects she finds on her travels. The last opening—inspired by the pattern on the yellow cookie jar in the photo—included things like a bright yellow vintage dutch oven and yuzu jelly made in Berkeley.
Swanson was recently overseas, gathering ideas for an opening that started this week. The new, quirky collection includes a (free) recipe for huckleberry curd, denim aprons made in California, and June Taylor’s blackberry and lemon thyme conserve.
Kitchen jewelry indeed.
* Most likely.