On the first morning of the Jono Pandolfi dinnerware pop-up in Philly, a woman FaceTimed her best friend from the center of the studio, documenting the shelves of turquoise and yellow and persimmon salad plates. A man cradled a 4-ounce, birch white creamer made of toast-colored clay.
Pandolfi is the designer behind the handmade plates and cups in some of Philly’s most well-regarded restaurants, including Southwark, River Twice, and Vetri Cucina.
Based in North Jersey, Pandolfi started his eponymous company in 2004 and has since become famous in the (niche) world of high-end plateware. He crafted the espresso and cappuccino cups for Eleven Madison Park and recently designed five new shapes for chef Daniel Humm’s forthcoming West Village restaurant. (Usually, “I only release one new shape every few years,” he said.)
Even Carmy on HBO’s The Bear uses Jono Pandolfi dinnerware.
The 10-day Philly pop-up, held at an Olde Kensington apartment complex, offers pieces at deep discounts. Some are overstock from restaurant orders or one-off commissions with special colors and shapes. Others are seconds, pottery with small cosmetic flaws. One of the best-selling pieces is the Alaska bowl — a “pasta-sized bowl,” as Pandolfi calls it — which normally sells for $57 and is on sale for $28.
“If you need to make 100 dinner plates for a customer, you have to probably fire 120,” Pandolfi, in black jeans and a magnetic name tag reading “Jono, Founder,” said in an interview at the Philly sale. The pop-ups are a way to sell off the extras. Some are stamped with the labels of the restaurants that originally commissioned them.
The sale runs daily 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sept. 21, at 1525 N. American St. Studio #109. Reservations are available online, though people can also just walk in.
The first day drew pottery enthusiasts and devoted home chefs, as well as fans of The Bear, from across the city. Customers pored over a crumpled seconds sale-price list on the main table, and the studio echoed with the gentle thunk of pottery being lifted, examined, and restacked.
“I’m always looking for beautiful things to collect,” said Julia Jacob, 38, an interior designer living in South Philly. She is planning to host family in her new home for the first time this Thanksgiving and wanted clean white plates to make the food look good.
One of Pandolfi’s golden rules is that his beautiful dinnerware cannot upstage beautiful food. He likes working within the confines of what chefs want from their dishes: They must be minimalist, durable, dishwasher-safe. The company churns out 1,000 such pieces a day from a studio in Union City, New Jersey.
“It feels like you’re buying something that’s not made at Target,” said Soumya Dayananda, 50, an attorney who lives in Society Hill. She was considering salad plates in four colors, as well as turquoise dinner plates.
Susan West, 41, carried a large serving tray, a medium serving tray, two bread plates, and three small bowls, all in vibrant yellow.
“I don’t need anything,” she said. She couldn’t justify buying all new dinner plates — but these were for hosting. For cheese, for olives! She liked the rustic look of the pottery, and the way it lent itself to showing off unfussy food. She was almost ready to check out when she spotted a small red-and-green-banded plate on a shelf by the register.
“I’m very tempted by this for Christmas cookies. But I’m like, that’s ridiculous.” She paused to consider the plate. “Should I get one? This is where I spiral.”
Some customers returned multiple times in a single day.
Catherine Pelletier, 60, a designer on the Main Line, had learned about Jono Pandolfi after researching the dinnerware on The Bear. She has since been to Pandolfi’s pop-ups in New Jersey and New York.
She arrived at the Philly studio sale right when it opened, and bought serving platters and dip bowls for herself. Then she left. But her friend asked if it wasn’t too much trouble, could she return, and pick up a few things for her? So Pelletier came back and ended up purchasing serving trays and bowls for her friend as well.
Maryam Mahdavi, 64, and a collector of pottery, was eager to talk shop with Pandolfi, but she also recognized she had a lot to do. She had dragged her husband to the pop-up, and now he was enchanted by the shiny green tiki cup, a nearly foot-high mug with a face like an Easter Island statue. (“I don’t want that,” Mahdavi said, before magnanimously agreeing to buy it for her husband.)
She stared down the studio’s central table, piled high with bread plates and pasta bowls and ramekins and square-sided salad plates originally designed for chef April Bloomfield’s Tosca Cafe in San Francisco. She had no more time for small talk.
“Now,” she said, “I gotta focus.”
