About Us
CITY BOARDS is a homegrown culinary brand of kitchen, dining room, and home bar products as well as custom butcher block countertops. We feed our love of cooking and cocktails through the tools we use and offer a variety of locally sourced, beautiful, and functional culinary tools for the home.
Founded as NOLA BOARDS in 2014, by Mandy Simpson of New Orleans who grew up in and around the vibrant food scene of the Big Easy. NOLA BOARDS was launched into the spotlight in 2015 when celebrity chef Rachel Ray chose the Marigny Triangle cheese board as her number one gift for the holidays.
The enterprise now, CITY BOARDS, is taking the brand on the road with its new open air store on wheels affectionately named OPTIMISS PRIME- a spin on a 90’s Transformers name referencing the stores ability to transform from a trailer into a full retail store in just minutes. In tow for the venture is husband Daren Sumrow, who as a woodworker himself oversees the brand’s wooden products. Future plans include stops at foodie cities across the Southern region and beyond. First stop on the road in the fall of 2023 is Nashville, where NASH BOARDS makes its debut with the best that Nashville has to offer!
Follow our journey on Instagram @nashvilleboards and let us know where you want to see CITY BOARDS next!
Our Boards
Whether you’re an expert or a novice, the one piece of equipment that will see more work than almost any other accessory in your kitchen: Your cutting board.
WHAT MAKES OUR BOARDS DIFFERENT
Bacteria Resistant – we take great care to pre-treat all of our cutting boards with healthy doses of mineral oil and beeswax conditioner. It’s essential that you treat it regularly so it can maintain its look and not absorb water. It will also prevent the board from absorbing odors and from staining. The smaller pores of the wood we use blocks bacteria from penetrating the surface of the board and makes it more difficult for knives to create grooves where bacteria can lurk. Wood naturally contains antimicrobial compounds, like tannins.
Knife Friendly – When choosing a cutting board you have to consider your knives. At the end of the day, you want your knives to last as long as possible, and the choice of cutting boards will make a huge difference in how long they’ll last. Our wooden boards won’t dull your knives.
Durability – Our chef quality cutting boards are made with only the best dense and locally sourced hardwoods. They are 100% made in the USA by craftspeople in the state of each store. We believe in supporting local artisans and the tradition of woodworking.
Design – To us, aesthetics are everything. We have designed our boards to not only be functional but beautiful as well. They are meant to be left out on your counter to add to the personality of your kitchen.
Woods – We use only environmentally responsible and renewable hard woods in making our products. HERE is a listing of our most popular types of woods.
Locations
Countertops
Adding wooden countertops to your kitchen or bathroom gives it a sense of warmth, comfort and home. The large variety of woods you can choose from add color and texture to the whole room in a way that no other surface else can.
We offer two types of finishes. One is our natural finish made of mineral oil and beeswax, which is what we apply to our line of cutting boards. The natural finish is food safe, allowing you to cut directly on the surface of your countertop. The natural finish involves more upkeep than our other finishing option, polyurethane, and it also has a more natural, hand-finished aesthetic. Polyurethane is very durable and can come in various sheens (matte, gloss, satin, etc.). Polyurethane finishes are great at withstanding wear and tear and are highly recommended for households with small children, as kids tend to test the durability of everything they touch!
Depending on usage, polyurethane finished wooden countertops will last 10-20 years until they will need to be refinished, sometimes much longer. Countertops with the natural oil and wax finish may need re-oiling and waxing every 3-4 months in the beginning to build up a protective layer, and then less frequently after that, depending on usage. This is an easy, DIY process. See what kind of maintenance do wood countertops require in the Care for Wood Countertops section.
Request More Information
Fill out our Countertop Project Form for the city you are interested in ordering from.
Contact Us
Mailing Address
4228 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
Phone
(504) 256-0030
info@nolaboards.com