Kristin Jorgensen Goes Retail With La Poste

Last November, Kristin Jorgensen offered a tantalizing taste of her big plans for the small building on Hwy 107 that in 1897 began service as Cashiers’ first post office. La Poste opened with a small, thoughtfully selected inventory of natural wines and gift items just in time for the holiday shopping and entertaining season. The two women on the floor – Jorgensen and her manager, Abby Powell – were already known to mostof the people who stopped in out of curiosity and walked out with a bottle or two.

Ten years ago, Jorgensen bought the converted-for-humans barn in Glenville that her grandparents had used for decades as their summer home. She reinvented it as The Barn, a rural day trip for people seeking convivial cooking classes.

A lithe, graceful woman with a brilliant smile and genuine warmth, Jorgensen spent her entire professional career in restaurants – working back and front of house as an employee and an owner, including Cashiers for nearly a decade, and then in Sonoma, CA.

“I thought I would live in Sonoma forever." But life happens, plans change and the property that had been in the family for decades seemed the perfect place for a fresh start – personally and professionally.

“I knew I didn’t want to be in restaurants anymore,” she recalls. “I wanted to get back to why I got into the business in the first place, my passion for being in a kitchen with fun people, cooking, eating and drinking wine. I wanted to rediscover the joyful part of restaurants, minus the stress and drama of the business.”

Familiar with the culture of Cashiers and Highlands, particularly during the busy season, she had a brilliant idea. “In the summer, this area is like camp for adults, and they want things to do.  People love the ambiance and fun of being together in a kitchen, so I converted the barn into The Barn, a place for cooking together.”

Over the years, that has evolved into a schedule of classes and workshops she creates and posts on her website – Farm to Table is the most often selected, followed by Italian and French. (Her personal favorites are Thai, dim sum and authentic Mexican.)  Those are limited to ten people, last about four hours and conclude with a celebratory meal at the large farm table.

She also offers opportunities for groups to sign up for a theme of their choosing. In 2020, Powell, a sommelier who had managed Canyon Kitchen for three years, came on board at The Barn to assist and develop the wine workshops.

As busy as they were, something was missing. “People would come to the classes, love the wine and food and want to recreate the experience at home,” Jorgensen says. “They wanted to know where they could buy the olive oil we used, the salt, the cooking tools, the wine. We did not have a retail presence at The Barn.”

Already enamored of the historic former post office and its setting on green grounds beside a creek, Jorgensen waited several years for the tenants who were using it for offices to move out. “I loved that building,” she says. “I knew the downstairs was perfect for a shop, the upstairs for classes, the side porch for tastings and the yard for picnics, a garden and bocce courts.”

After a winter hiatus, La Poste reopened in April. Industrial metal shelving units contrast with rustic wooden floors and walls and are stocked with products, tools and cookbooks.  “This is not just a kitchen store,” she asserts. “It’s things you need to cook, just a lot of my favorite little things.”

That includes knives, salts, oils, vinegars, condiments, cutting boards, sauté pans, grains, dried peas, stone ground grits, noodles, pasta, ethnic products, whole vanilla pods, wild cinnamon quills and dried fruits. Her obsession with cookbooks – currently European and English – is on display.

Tinned fish, cut cheese and salami with crackers are offered on site—at a small table inside by one of the original windows, on the side porch, and outdoors beside the two bocce courts or the picnic area by the creek and future garden.

And wine, glorious wine. Jorgensen and Powell are evangelists for natural wines and the inventory reflects that. “We believe people should know what’s in their wine and not drink wine with additives and things that will make you feel horrible the next day. We have a huge passion for European drinking culture.”  Jorgensen adds with a laugh, “You should be playing bocce and drinking wine, eating cheese and drinking wine, sitting here drinking wine!”

Late Friday afternoons, Powell opens a bottle for free tasting; once a month, she presents an in-depth class called Babe’s Bottle School.  They’ve seen significant interest from groups of women for 60-minute wine tastings and tutorials focused on a grape, region or country, and intend to offer tastings geared to men. “We have found they often gravitate to what they know, the big name on the bottle. We want them to expand their horizons.”

Speaking of classes, as soon as the kitchen on the second floor is complete and licensed, La Poste will host cooking classes, taught by her and guests. She has already dangled the opportunity to colleagues in Atlanta, Charleston and Charlotte. “Escape the heat and spend a few blissful days in the mountains!’ I tell them. Living and working here is truly a dream.”