Selecting the Right Tabletop Items

At Boston Showcase Company, we pride ourselves in being the premier resource in New England for tabletop items. This includes glassware, china, flatware, bread baskets, candle holders, and much more. My grandfather, Jason Starr, who served as President for thirty years received numerous awards for his creative tabletop arrangements. His passion for tabletop trickled down through the generations, from my father and uncle to myself.

While some might think that the first thing to consider when selecting tabletop items is price, you would be somewhat wrong. I would say totally wrong, but obviously price is always a concern. The first thing to consider is usage, storage space, and how the items will be transported to the dish room. One of my loyal customers always mulls the possibility of switching from heavy, clunky china to a more elegant, modern pattern. However, their restaurant is extremely high-volume with bussers rushing buckets in and out of the kitchen, quickly scraping leftover food and stashing glasses in racks. If they switched to all high-end items, their tabletop bills would skyrocket because of breakage and loss. It's not that only a small, upscale restaurant can have high-end tabletop items; in fact, hotels often have some of most expensive items, especialy china. This ties into the aforementioned key criteria. The small, upscale restaurant can have high-end tabletop items because they are used infrequently, maybe only one turn each night, and thus, are handled less. And the smaller the restaurant, the smaller the quantity of items, making storage a cinch. While usage is huge in a hotel, they can maintain high-end tabletop items because of their ability to transport and store everything. In a banquet room, hundreds of plates, glasses and flatware hit the tables, but hotels use plate dispensers, poker chip dollies and glass rack dollies, items that can't possibly fit in a normal restaurant, to for storage and transport. 

Now that you have sifted through the first set of criteria, you can start to select the styles that you prefer. More than ninety percent of china in commercial settings is white, but the shapes are becoming increasingly different.  Squares and rectangles all all the rage today, but even funkier shapes with multiple curves and indentations are starting to sell.  Villeroy and Boch, Steelite, and Front of the House, which represent three price points, all push the envelope with innovative new china concepts. Recently, Libbey, a company known for their traditional, durable glassware, released the Quadra line (see below), which has a solid, heavy base and a rounded square body. Walco Stainless, which has dozens of classic patterns, including Pacific Rim, Derby, and Fan Fare, also showcases progressive patterns such as Ironstone, Modernaire (see picture), and Frosted Vogue. 

The hard part is over now and if you and your sales associate have done your homework, there will be two to three options for china, glassware, and flatware.  Now is the time to look at price.  Before making any selections, determine a rough budget for the whole package rather than per item.  Even though you might love the unique shape of a certain pasta bowl, for $30 per bowl, it's probably too expensive.  And if you pass on it, you can buy a higher quality round dinner plate and a customized steak knife.  You can go the other way too and buy cheap glassware because those pasta dishes are your signature.  Buying tabletop is about give and take, but having an overall budget makes this process easier.