Where do i begin?  i just received my shipment of “seconds” from the Heath Ceramics factory store in Sausalito, CA.  Yes, they ship and they are the nicest retail outlet ever-  they even gave my hungover and low blood sugar brother a cookie from miette, when he was sick of waiting for me to sift through the piles and piles of factory rejects.  I first learned of the factory store from my savvy, younger cousin, joyce mao.  she seems to know just about everything when it comes to shopping and style.  I like to think of her as a younger version of myself, but i think that is just complete self-flattery.  Anyways, she mentioned one dollar plates. This i had to see.  You can’t even get one dolla plates at ikea!

We bee lined it directly from the airport. We had missed our intended flight so arrived an hour later.  Feeling flustered and in my typical shopping frenzy upon arrival of sensing bargains to be had, i was even more stressed out by losing an entire hour of shopping time and had also skipped lunch. 

I have been tired of my typical, rounded square, from the early 2000’s, ikea starter dinner plates.  I own about 15 of them and even though food looks good on white plates, well they are still ikea. And square?  I think i am ready for an upgrade and was using wallflour food photos as my justification for treating myself to some new plates and dishes.  Much to my dismay, the dollar plate remains an urban myth, to be lumped together with the Pierre Hardy line for the Gap.  Does it really exist?  Or did i just completely miss out?  I did manage to scour through the back area piles behind the well-displayed “seconds” in the front room.

Towards the back they have items that are more blemished, discontinued, one-offs, or special request runs.  Some blemishes are so small, it’s a tiny dribble of the glaze or just the smallest imperfection.  This area is what i refer to as “thirds”. i managed to score a few two dollar dinner plates and mixed and match a set of 10 round dinner plates ranging from steel blue matte to chocolate brown glossy.  This is my attempt at being eclectic-  a non-matching set of plates. The prices ranged from $2-20 a plate, a mere fraction of what they cost full price.  I scored some large serving platters for $20 and a large orange bowl.  Some items were part of the Chez Panisse collection, where we were headed to that night for the prix-fixe menu.  Of course 40 lbs. of ceramics, later i didn’t really know how i was gonna lug all this back to LA.  

Amazingly enough, the shopping gods were looking down on me and the Heath Factory Store offers shipping via UPS at a fraction of what other places would charge. I only paid $10 in shipping cost and the items arrive extremely well packed and rather quickly.  Apparently, they extend their company discount to their clientele.  I love those SF hippies.  Always keeping things real.  Of course, like any good shopping high, i wasn’t sure if i had covered all my territory, but didn’t have time to return.  So i tried calling the next day, to have the covered, large casserole dish delivered to me, but was told the seconds cannot be charge-sent without having been examined by the buyer.  Totally understandable, i will just have to make a detour to the store again when i am on my way to Sonoma in August. All the full price current line is available to be charge-sent.  In the Los Angeles area, the Heath line is available at OK and Jules Seltzer.

I loved the other items they had in the store.  It was a great introductory stop for my food weekend in SF.  The tables were covered in books from local eateries, like Bar Tartine, which we had plans to go to the restaurant, and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse,   I say “plans” lightly, but what i mean to say is that it was on Day 02 of our packed itinerary- “Dinner Tartine 8:30 pm”.  There were also housewares and cookies from other local artisans and bakeries. Throughout the weekend, i noticed quite a feeling of local camaraderie and support among the food lovers and the foodie lifestyle.

For the remainder of our stay in the bay area, we noticed heath ceramics everywhere.  It was the serving ware of choice at several restaurants we visited, as well as common items to be found at vintage stores.  I can’t wait to go back and score more bargains.  Merchandise is replenished daily!  Rest assured, I still have faith in the dollar plate and shall divide and conquer.