12/14/2025
For 37 years, the Wooden Spoon in Plano has been a specialty shop for all things Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Icelandic. It is a beacon for holiday cheer, as well as a global destination for Scandinavians in search of the rarest delicacies.
In a refrigerated case is pungent Danbo cheese from Denmark and more than a dozen kinds of herring. Against the wall are bins of sour licorice and other Swedish candy that have made the shop an unlikely TikTok sensation. In the corner stands a glass pyramid of glögg—the mulled wine often imbibed on the icy Nordic slopes.
After moving south from Minnesota in 1988, Gwen Workman built up her unique inventory and introduced Texans to the finer points of Scandinavian culture, especially her family’s deep Norwegian roots. Inspired by a Norwegian exhibit at the State Fair of Texas in the early ’80s, Workman launched her shop in McKinney before setting her sights on the Forman House in Plano.
After spending eight-plus years refurbishing the house, Workman went to work securing a historical landmark designation for the property. The world map on the wall, dotted with pins from customers visiting from as far away as Japan and Eastern Europe, reveals the shop’s Old World reach.
Learn more about the Wooden Spoon here: https://bit.ly/4pQvsRf
