Pfun with Pfaltzgraff

After using the same everyday plates and dishes since I was in grad school and Debbie was still an undergrad, we decided to get some new dinnerware about two years ago. We browsed the Pfaltzgraff outlet over in Burlington, but could not find a pattern we both liked. Last year, we decided to make a more concerted effort as our Christmas present to each other. After going around to several department stores, we had found exactly one pattern we both liked, but agreed it was too expensive. Browsing more online, I found the Villa della Luna pattern by Pfaltzgraff. It was bright and a little more showy than what Debbie and I had been considering, but when she saw it, she immediately agreed that it was for us. After looking at actual pieces in a local store, I made a last-minute run to the Burlington outlet the night before we left for Christmas in SC. When I got there, they had some very pretty blue salad plates in addition to the square salad plates Debbie had admired. Not only were they attractive, but they were on sale, so I bought a half-dozen of them as a bonus Christmas surprise for Debbie, in addition to a ‘traditional’ set for 12–dinner plates, square salad plates, and soup/cereal bowls (who needs mugs?)–that we had agreed on.

In SC, Debbie had another dinnerware surprise in addition to the blue salad plates. We showed my parents the one place setting we had brought down for that purpose. My mother then showed us the Christmas present she had intended for us–a ‘new’ set of the pattern she had given us 17 years earlier that she had found in a local antique/used-furniture store.* On the bright side, the new pattern did give my mother a whole new realm of gifts that she likes to give.

Then, in the spring, I read about a recall of the Villa della Luna plates and one of the two patterns of soup/cereal bowls. We called the store, but they said they did not have any information about when or if new plates/bowls would be available. We then had to decide whether to 1) return everything, in case the pattern was discontinued, 2) return just the plates and bowls for a credit to use against new plates in a different pattern, or 3) hold on to them until we knew more about Pfaltzgraff’s plans for the pattern. We chose #3–wait and see.

In the summer, we heard they planned to make the plates again in October. In October, we saw a new dinner plate one the website where there had been no dinner plate, but it was very plain compared to the one we had. However, after eating off an assortment of mismatched plastic plates for six months, we were ready for some real plates. I took a half-day off so that we could go to the store together to see the new plate and other, similar patterns and to return our recalled pieces.

Before we went, I called the Pfaltzgraff store and their recall hotline, where I found out that 1) they planned to have the original pattern available (hopefully without the lead and cadmium) before Christmas and 2) the Pfaltzgraff outlet stores were closing and had everything 40% or more off. (Future purchases could be made online.) We ended up returning our recalled pieces for a TBD credit, hoping to get a 1-for-1 swap when the new pieces are available. We took advantage of the 40-60% off sale to get more assorted, non-recalled Villa della Luna pieces.

Just before we left, Debbie peeked in a separate room where they had some deeply discounted merchandise. At first nothing interested us, but in the back were some really ugly dishes in a brown Caramel Swirl pattern that looks straight from the 1970s. Somehow, thinking of them in our 1969 ranch house made them irresistable–sort of like slowing down when passing a car wreck for some people. At only $1.58 per plate, we ended up buying 8 plates and 4 pasta bowls so we could have real plates for the next six weeks, as well as appropriate tableware when we haul out the fondue sets.

*Incidentally, this was the second time we told them about something we had just bought for ourselves only to have them say they had just gotten a different version for us.  The first was after we got Coppi Dog, and they had just gotten a cocker spaniel that they ended up keeping.