8 Ways to Dress the Table Like a Design Pro

Texture becomes pattern in Oneida’s Sant’Andrea Francia line, specifically the texture of Champagne bubbles. Using texture rather than color or shape to pattern this tableware collection allows the food to be the star. oneida.com

Inspired by the gesture sketch marks made by artists as the foundation for a painting or drawing, Oneida’s Sant’Andrea Pensato line of tableware captures the emotion and intention behind art. The plate serves as the support of the culinary artwork—the frame, if you will. oneida.com

Husband and wife team Alex and Connie Matisse are two of the three founders behind this Asheville, North Carolina, pottery brand East Fork that is definitive of the genre: speckled glazes and exposed rims. Small batch comes with a price: Whole orders aren’t open until January 2019. eastfork.com

Matt Hallyburton custom forms and glazes restaurant collections out of his Durham, North Carolina, studio. Most of his work is fired in a wood-burning kiln to high temperatures for durability. His small shop needs 6-8 weeks for product turnaround. hallyburtonpottery.com

Natural and organic foods meet their ceramic counterpart in Libbey’s Driftstone collection. Driftstone builds a peaceful, eye-catching tabletop with river-inspired colors. The matte satin glaze finish is right on trend. foodservice.libbey.com

Your Gen Z guests would tell you dishes like shakshouka are “fire,” meaning hot in a trendy sense. But they’re also physically hot and typically served in whatever vessel they’re cooked in. The Alessi Tegamino is designed specifically for cooking eggs, for serving them at table, and for eating them directly out of it. alessi.com

For today’s audience, the following is a fair rhetorical question: Who doesn’t like all-gold-everything? Oneida’s Chef’s Table Gold is the bling they want and the bling you need. oneida.com

Call me crazy, and you just might, but hear me out. I had long anticipated sitting down to eat at D.C.’s Himitsu this fall after interviewing co-owner Carlie Steiner in February and seeing her partner Kevin Tien’s James Beard nomination come through. While queueing up outside I spied some speckled, seemingly handmade ceramic tableware. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and flip it over—an unusual pastime of mine in restaurants. But lo and behold, when I did, the plates were from IKEA. I immediately recognized the carafes and glasses from its collections, too. One of my dining companions said, “IKEA is the new restaurant supply store.” You heard it here first.