If you don’t want to read the back story of my cookware obsession or about the road trip to Dallas, scroll down to The Factory to Table Event.
In college, I entered a food blog contest where you had to submit a recipe that incorporated beans and you could be entered to win a Le Creuset dutch oven and a few free cans of Bush’s baked beans. I had submitted a recipe for a quesadilla, and a few days later I received an email that I had won. I couldn’t believe it, and asked them to ship it to my parent’s house because I most certainly wasn’t going to have a super nice dutch oven in my crappy college apartment where squirrels were living in the walls.
A few months later I learned I was moving to Texas for a job, and I packed up the oven – never having used it – and made my way to Texas. I think that’s where I really started to refine my cooking. I’ve always loved cooking and entertaining, but with just me, a dutch oven, my kitchen aid mixer, and no friends, I got to work.
I then proceeded to get a job at Sur La Table in an attempt to fill my free time and make friends, and the obsession with cookware only continued. I’m thankful for the job because it really did give me lifelong friends, but I didn’t make any money as I put my whole paycheck back into the store to invest in the best possible cookware at a discount.
For a long time I’ve seen the Le Creuset Factory to Table sale come to cities like Atlanta, Charleston, somewhere out in California and just waited patiently for it to come within driving distance of Austin. After waiting for years, I was rewarded with an IG post that Le Creuset Factory to Table was coming to Dallas! Just a few hours from me, and I was definitely buying tickets. I immediately texted Paisley and we bought tickets for the VIP day where you could have first dibs on items and the opportunity to get a $50 mystery box.
Fast forward two months and Paisley and I left work early on Thursday and took off towards Dallas. We were on a mission. We had strategized. We had made wish lists. We were not going to be disappointed.
My only memory of Dallas is driving through in on my way to and from Wisconsin when I moved here. Lucky for me, Paisley had previously lived in Dallas and we were meeting up with a friend for dinner, so I was in good hands. On the way up 35 we stopped at Czech Stop to get kolaches in West, Texas and they completely lived up to the hype. We didn’t have a wait which was incredible. Paisley and I both got two different types of kolaches and crushed them in the car quickly before continuing on to Dallas.
We rolled in just before rush hour and found the venue, and went to Rodeo Goat just over a mile away from the venue. We got some Cheese Fries No Surprise, a beer, and waited for Jenna to meet us after work. When Jenna got there we ordered burgers and some more drinks and had a nice catch up before our shopping time started at 6:30 PM.
The Factory to Table Event
We rolled into the Dallas Market Center just a few minutes before the event was supposed to start and after parking, there was a line about 20 people strong in front of us. The Le Creuset workers came through the line and scanned our tickets and gave us cards for the mystery boxes. At 6:30 the doors opened and we made our way inside the event center where we were given a shopping cart, and then free reign to look at all the tables filled with cookware.
They had everything. Their dutch ovens, stainless, nonstick, limited edition items, cookware sets, bakeware, accessories. If Le Creuset makes it, it was at the event. They also had live music, a bar option, and people passing snacks like pigs in a blanket out to the shoppers. At first, it’s a little overwhelming. We were in a large event center that was just filled with camping tables that were stacked with cookware of all colors. We snaked our way through it and added items to our cart. It’s a really great event because it offers a ton of colors, sizes, and items that I had never seen before.
We had probably looked around for an hour before I decided to get in the long, but fast moving line of people checking out. At the register they rang us up and we struck up a conversation with the woman and asked her what the biggest purchase was of the day. She didn’t know as they didn’t run the numbers yet, but mentioned when this happened in Los Angeles someone spent $6,000+ which is crazy to me. We checked out, went to the exit, and grabbed our mystery boxes. I left Paisley with the carts and pulled my car around to load up and head home. We briefly looked into our boxes to make sure nothing was broken, and after assuring we were getting non-broken items. Loaded up, and headed straight back to Austin for the night. We both had to work the next morning so no lingering or exploring Dallas’ night life.
I ended up purchasing a 13 qt Dutch Oven, a 7 qt Chef’s Oven, a 16 qt Enameled Stock Pot, and a Mystery Box which contained a double burner grill pan, a casserole dish, and two corn cob dishes. Paisley had an even better haul and got more accessories and found her Cassis color available in a lot of items and a beautiful matte purple shimmery dutch oven.
I can’t say enough nice things about all of the staff there from the people who were helping grab items to the people who loaded cars, to the people passing out samples – just the best customer service I have experienced, especially at a big event like that. I definitely recommend people go to this if you’re cookware obsessed and want to score some great deals. They also gave us a 30% coupon for the Outlet store which I will most likely use for either myself or my friends. I am not sure the Factory to Table sale will come back to Texas, but if it does, I would love to go again.
