Chef's Equipment Emporium, Wallingford

For more than 40 years, the culinary experts at Kitchen Gadgets and Beyond have supplied supermarkets and restaurants with gourmet-quality ingredients, cookware, and equipment. They've even designed supermarkets and commercial kitchens. Eventually, members of the public took notice and, spatulas raised threateningly above their heads, demanded access to the 10,000-square-foot show rooms.

Today, both professionals and avid home chefs browse the emporium, daydreams of pasta and baked goods dancing in their heads as they meander through rows of cutlery, bakeware, and small kitchen appliances.