Everyday Cook’s next step

Mary Campbell’s life after lunch

by Tony McReynolds & Sally Mitani

posted 7/24/2008

“We’re not doing lunches,” says Mary Campbell of Everyday Cook, “but we’re not closed.” Campbell’s anxious to quash rumors that she’d given up on her combination restaurant and cookware store in Kerrytown after losing out on a bargain liquor license last winter.

The kitchen is closed, but only temporarily, and the store is very much open. It’s still called Everyday Cook, but Campbell’s shifted the emphasis from cookware to wine and bar accessories, entertainmentware, and wine books. The cookware wasn’t working out, she says, and the wine and bar accessories are a natural complement to Kerrytown’s Everyday Wine, which she also owns.

Campbell plans to sell carryout lunches and dinners when the kitchen reopens. She’s also pursuing a new “developmental” liquor license. “Once the license makes its way through the machinery in Lansing,” she emails, “we’ll add supper clubs, wine classes, and a wine tasting room featuring picks from Everyday Wines.” That’s likely to be a ways down the road. Though the city has already approved her application for the license, it could be next spring before the state gets around to granting it.

Everyday Cook, 410 North Fifth Avenue (Kerrytown Market & Shops), 827–2665, everyday-wines.blogspot.com. Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.–6 p.m., Sun. noon–5 p.m.   

[Originally published in July, 2008.]