Ok, it's nowhere near the areas you mentioned, and it's not a witty answer at all. But were I in the market for a specific, high quality knife, my first stop would be be
Knifewear in Inglewood.
They seem to have a real passion for the finer points of cutlery and seem less interested in selling lifestyle type sets ("Oh look dear! The handles match our pot holders!") than selling the sharpest, high quality pieces of forged metal known to man.
If you're wife wants a top quality knife you can at least spare yourself the time at the mall and maybe learn a thing or two.
Full disclosure, I've never shopped at knifewear, but like I said, if I were looking for a top quality blade, I'd go there first.