Would you rather buy a new serving plate than a new outfit for a special dinner party?
Do you have a secret desire to toss out the china you`ve had for years and start anew?
Do you believe Chinese carry-out tastes better on ”real” plates than straight from the carton?
If so, you may be one of a number of tableware fanatics who worship the art of culinary presentation. They don`t set a table. They create a table. To the fanatic, placing a plate between knife and fork, behind cup, saucer and stemware is an art. The dining table is their easel; plates, bowls, cups and saucers, flatware, candlesticks and crystal are their medium.
Fanatics feel no loyalty to etiquette and, instead, believe their own sense of creativity is the better rule of thumb when it comes to dressing the table.
Mixing and matching colors and maybe even patterns of porcelain on the same table is one of their trademarks. They ponder the perfect centerpiece and aren`t limited to floral arrangements.
A trend toward staying at home and entertaining at home has spawned a generation that chooses to make the meal the main course in a social event. Accordingly, they serve up a table that`s often at least as delicious as the food itself.
”People are spending more time at home,” says Kathy Hahn, owner of Adesso, 600 Central Ave., Highland Park, a tabletop specialty shop. ”People are entertaining in a different way. Cooking has become more simplified, and because of that people are spending more time on their tables.
”We see a lot of people who don`t feel the need emotionally or financially to stick to the traditional five-piece place setting,” she adds. Crate & Barrel was a big help in liberating us from boring boxed
”starter sets” and in honing our skills in creating a unique look for our tables.
BEYOND FUSS
The goal is not necessarily to create a ”pretty” table but an
”interesting” one.
”We all have pretty tables,” says Ann Burnstine, manager of Adesso.
”With china, crystal and silver, anyone`s table can look pretty. These people want a different look, a more fun look, with a theme. They`ll go out and buy special (wooden) lobster napkin rings and red-and-white checked napkins just for a lobster-boil party they`re hosting.”
Isabelle von Boch is a consummate tableware fanatic. How could she be anything else? Von Boch is an eighth generation family member working for Villeroy & Boch, a 238-year-old manufacturer of porcelain tableware and bone china. She is the ambassador and official spokeswoman for the company, which is regarded industry-wide as a leader in style and design.
Von Boch was in Chicago recently. She shared these secrets of fine form for fanatics and others interested in tableware mania.
First, she says, don`t be afraid to use your china or fine bone china.
”My husband and I don`t think it`s too good to be used. It`s important to be used every day,” says von Boch, who says her 15-month-old daughter eats off fine china daily.
And it doesn`t matter if ”dinner” is carryout Chinese.
”I order out a lot-Chinese food, pizzas. But I always serve it on our china. I take it out of the cartons and carry it into the dining room. It makes all the difference to me. You feel like a civilized person that way,”
von Boch says.
Tableware manufacturers are coming out with new patterns, sizes and even pieces of tableware dedicated to the pursuit of interesting tables.
Take Villeroy & Boch, which has introduced dinnerware especially for men. Long ignored as a primary consumer, men have had few choices beyond dainty floral patterns. Villeroy & Boch, though, has come out with several unisex patterns of porcelain, including classic faux marble, geometric, and large English chintz-like floral looks.
One major manufacturer based in France, Ceralene-Raynaud, comes right and out tells shoppers in a consumer brochure to be uninhibited (and more fanatical) when choosing tableware. It suggests mixing and matching patterns and pieces in its line to create a tireless setting. The company also shows no dedication to decorum: It labels the traditional bread-and-butter plate useless and recommends its aptly sized melon bowl be substituted.
Vietri, an importer of what can best be described as unusual tableware from Italy, equips fanatics with myriad ”toys.” Hand-painted pastel earthenware and sensuously smooth solid wood dinnerware made from ontano-an Italian mountain wood-are some of its sophisticated wares.
Along with these veterans of tableware are relative newcomers. Swid Powell is perhaps the most celebrated. This 5-year-old company sells tableware designed by architects-the likes of Richard Meier, Robert Venturi, Ettore Sottsass and Chicago`s own Stanley Tigerman.
Architects aren`t the only ones with a penchant for designing tableware these days, though. Christopher Idone, a New York chef, caterer and author of ”Glorious Food” and ”Glorious American Food,” has developed a line of dinnerware for Culinary Ceramic Concepts.
”It came out of doing my books,” Idone says. ”My books are very photographic. I do the photography in friends` houses, and I use their dishes.”
Lacking, though, among the dinnerware sets of his friends was a soup plate. Not a tiny bowl, but a wide-mouthed plate. After searching stores in New York, Idone decided it would be simpler to design his own. That led to the creation of his line that includes oversized plates and an ingenious saucer that doesn`t have a well so it can be used as a small bowl for sauces or fruit when it`s not under a cup.
Another new piece on the tableware scene is the formal mug. Replacing the cup and saucer in traditional five-piece place settings, mugs-which hold American-sized doses of coffee-can coordinate with even the haughtiest of porcelains.
TABLE SHOPPING
In Chicago, tabletop gems have become more accessible as specialty shops have opened in the last few years with novel products.
Open-stock is the buzzword. Store owners say customers pay no price penalty for hand-picking each piece. Silverware, stemware and cookware also can be found at these stores, but the most glorious items are the extras for the table: sushi plates that look like ice blocks, wooden wine goblets, hand- pulled bronze-handled stainless steel serving pieces, iron cheese wires, sterling silver caviar spoons decorated with citrine and hematite stones and alabaster persimmons. . . .
Meet Marlene Berland and Susan Fishbein, sisters, business partners and tableware fanatics. The two, who together admit to owning 14 sets of dinnerware, are the owners of Table of Contents, 446 N. Wells St. The 2-year- old store is so full of tableware that it`s closed for expansion. It hass now reopened.
More than 75 patterns of dinnerware line the shelves at this store, and they can be mixed and matched ad infinitum. Other highlights include Alessi`s new cookware line and the classic cookie jar designed by Stanley Tigerman, who is known to come down every now and then from his office upstairs to mingle incognito with customers.
Berland, a former ready-to-wear buyer, and Fishbein, formerly with Weddings Inc., like to lend customers their expertise . . . and an ear. Chatting with customers in their in-store kitchen over a cup of coffee is their way of extracting vital information from the overwhelmed buyer-details that determine the best tableware for them, such as where they live, their storage space, favorite colors, style preferences, entertaining and tabletop needs.
”Sometimes we get nosy,” Berland says. ”But we`re just trying to get to know our customers and what`s best for them.”
THE BEGINNINGS
According to these women, a common dilemma plaguing many first-time buyers, in particular, is where to begin. They advise taking a ”wardrobing approach” to acquiring fine tableware: Start with something basic and then add interesting and unusual pieces to change the look.
”We don`t recommend buying formal and informal china,” Berland says.
”People don`t have room to store something that`s used once or twice a year. We recommend `wardrobing` the table with china that takes you through breakfast, Sunday supper and a formal dinner.
”The five-piece place setting should be scratched from terminology,”
Berland says. ”We try to stress place settings that are functional for the customer.” If that means two bowls and no bread-and-butter plate, then that`s what`s right.
Jeannine Dal Pra and Toby Glickman agree. The two own and operate Elements, an avant-garde jewelry/housewares accessories boutique at 738 N. Wells St. With the recent addition of a tabletop department to the shop, they`ve become staunch supporters (and suppliers) of the eclectic table.
Elements opened its doors last year with just one line of dinnerware, a
”slumped glass” setting from Ann Moorhauser. Today the shop carries a mix of contemporary dinnerware and an impressive assortment of unusual placemats. To name a few: hand-painted canvas mats that sell for $20 apiece; $62 leather mats embossed to look like alligator skin; and high-tech baked enamel on aluminum mats selling for $35.
Along with the product itself, table settings on display at Elements are truly conversational.
”If a plate has a gold rim, we`ll show it on a silver placemat,” Dal Pra says. ”Nothing has to go together, as long as it all works (visually).” Dal Pra and Glickman are quick to note, though, that not all customers are after completely new looks or brand-new dinnerware.
”We do a lot of restyling,” Glickman says. ”We get a lot of customers coming in saying they`re tired of their old stuff. We tell them to bring it in and we`ll find something to go with it.”
Glickman says that adding chop plates or new salad plates can complement a customer`s existing china in color and/or shape and update the set and give it an entirely new look. New wine glasses interspersed in an existing set of stemware is another possibility.
For tableware created by local artists and other craftspeople from across the country, there`s Adesso in Highland Park. Owner Kathy Hahn has culled products from name manufacturers and one-of-a-kind pieces.
One of the most interesting product lines is a collection of hand-pulled bronze handled stainless steel serving pieces created by a former dentist turned craftsman. Other notables include custom tablecloths, lacquered wood pate knives, sterling silver measuring spoons, a zebra beverage server and basket after basket of decorative napkin rings. Glass, soapstone, wood, vine, shell, verdigris copper, rope and even molded plaster Chinese finger puppet napkin rings, all ranging in price from about $3 to $6 apiece, can be found here.
”People are becoming more aware of their homes,” Glickman says.
”Unique accessories for the home and table are the final signature of a person`s persona.” –
HERE`S WHAT`S ON THE COVER
Sources and prices for products:
Table of Contents
China by Andree Putnam for Sasaki: dinner plates, $100, set of four; cups and saucers, $120, set of four; creamer and sugar, $75.
Kosta Boda salad plates, $17.50.
Crystal by Colle: goblets, $50; champagne flutes, $50; cruet, $40;
condiment jar, $85.
Flatware: Double Helix pattern from Sasaki, $65, 5-piece place setting.
Accessories: service pates $85; candle holders, $24; covered cake stand, $68; all from Guzzini. Champagne cooler, $70; round tray, $110, both from WMF of America. Salt and pepper, $100, from Christofle; black bud vase, $150, set of three, from Sasaki.
Adesso
Ikuzi Teraki white porcelain dinner plate, $48.
Japanese black glass sushi plate, $12.50.
Anichini Italian linen mats and napkins, $32.50 a set.
African soapstone napkin ring, $6.50 each.
Patino Wolf windows flatware, $100, five-piece place setting.
Andree Putnam crystal goblets, $30 each.
Stainless steel insulated coffee cups, $21.50 each.
Burnished porcelain garlic, peppers and eggplant, $25 to $125.
Merymaking confetti, $2, box.
Elements
Dinnerware from Dan Levy: Buffet, $68 in gold, $52 plain; dinner plate, $60 in gold, $46 plain; salad plate, $40 in gold, $30 plain.
Flatware from Patino Wolf, $85, five-piece place setting.
Stemware from Richard Strong in gold leaf, $55 each.
Mouth blown water glass, $45 each.
Salt and pepper from Jon Michael Route, $135.
Candlesticks from Marco De Gueltzl, $180, $160, $60.
Table runner, $135. –
