Bespoke Dishware Can Be Good for Business (and Instagram)

When you finish eating something at a restaurant, do you flip over your plate to see who made it? Maybe that seems like a strange thing to do, especially if you assume it’s labeled with the name of a mass producer. But increasing numbers of restaurants are outfitting their kitchens with custom-designed, handmade dishware; chances are you’ll see an independent designer’s name marking the underside of the plate your entree’s served on sooner rather than later…unless you’ve already been picking up for as long as the trend has. Perfect Pairings For many restaurateurs, going the custom route seems to be grounded in the desire to do something special for their diners. At Harlem, New York's Clay, a New American restaurant that opened last year in a former jazz club, it was important to chef Gustavo Lopez to have custom dishware. Believing that plateware is a design element that can be tied into the identity of a restaurant as much as its lights and wall colors, and that the sense