Eat, Love, Buy

Choosing your own fish at a restaurant and taking a tour of the cellar to pick the perfect wine is passé. A new trend is creating the buzz.

- Nidhi Raj Singh

Several years ago, when Chef Nira Kehar decided to shut her successful French cuisine restaurant in Delhi, Chez Nini, she had put up a quick sale of the crockery and managed to sell every time. As much as it broke our heart to see the talented chef not serving us anymore, the consolation was that we could get our hands on those simple yet soulful bowls and ladles.

El Portalon in Ibiza, Liza in Beirut, Townhall Café in Delhi, Common Bond Bakery & Café, Houston or Chi Ni at The Roseate in Gurgaon, Shang Palace at Shangri-La Eros in Delhi... if you have been to any of these restaurants, you might just like to take the fondue pots and sushi boards back home. If you ask me… even more than the recipes. But, aren’t restaurants more about flavours than the dishware? You also might argue—and rightly so—that ambiance or music could take next spots. And most restaurants serve in plain white or black, right? For some of us though what plates are we served in takes equal (sometimes more) precedence.

How much we would love to have the replicas, most restaurants serve in custom-made crockery and are usually not for sale. Unless, you are dining at a place where everything that you see (and love) is on sale or their collections is available to buy online.