8 November 2006 : Mia Cucina, a kitchen and cooking ware store located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, officially launched their full service ecommerce website with the support of web development specialists Chapman Net Systems. The new site, www.theplaceforcooks.com, will enable customers to purchase products, register for cooking classes, and create and manage gift registries online.

The new ecommerce site extends Mia Cucina’s reach beyond the Chattanooga market, paving the way for a planned expansion of retail operations throughout the Southeast in 2007 and 2008.  

In a move designed to enable the necessary focus on ecommerce, retail sales to the public at our 307 North Market Street store in North Chattanooga were ceased as of June 20, 2006.

Our second store, located in Hamilton Corners at 2115 Gunbarrel Road, remains open to the public.   Cooking classes will also continue at the Gunbarrel location.

This repositioning of our business will ensure Mia Cucina’s continued growth, and will ultimately be good for our customers as well.   We’d like to thank our loyal Market Street customers and apologize for any inconvenience.  

In addition to offering the best cookware around, Mia Cucina holds anywhere from 8 to 13 cooking classes a month, ranging from a basic kitchen skills class to fun tailgating picnic food to holiday desserts.   Almost every night you can walk in and smell something great cooking, whether it’s cinnamon rolls from the baking class or pasta sauce from the Italian dinner class.   We occasionally offer a “Girls Night Out” class, and if you need to go on a date with your sweetheart we offer a “Couples Cook Together” class.

Mia Cucina takes pride in our superior customer service.   All of our online store staff participate in training classes with our retail salespeople, so we know all about the products we carry.   We ’re happy to answer questions, and we ’re also immediat ely responsive to email and customer service issues.

Mia Cucina history

Heidi Swartz opened the first Mia Cucina (Italian for “my kitchen”) in July of 2003.   Filled with cookware from such manufacturers as Emile Henry, Le Creuset, All-Clad, and Cuisinart, the showroom is a cook’s dream, according to customers.   “I think it’s marvelous, Chattanooga needs this kind of store.   There are so many people who understand and appreciate fine dining and for whom cooking has become a hobby.”

Mrs. Swartz is a native of Minnesota, but spent many years moving around the country with her husband, Steve.   She spent 15 years working in sales and marketing for an office furniture company, followed by 5 years in sales and marketing consulting.   The couple moved to Chattanooga in 2002.   Her decision to open a cookware store, however, started long before that.   “Three years ago, our youngest daughter left for college, so I began thinking about what I wanted to do next.   I love being in the kitchen, so I thought about opening a restaurant or becoming a chef.”   A trip to Europe and a visit to a cookware store in Paris convinced her otherwise. “I walked into that kitchen store and was taken with it,” she says.

[2 paragraphs above excerpted from August 12, 2003 newspaper article in Chattanooga Times Free Press]

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