Best Mix-and-Match Tableware

• Global Table

  107 Sullivan Street, 212-431-5839

  The name of this dishy little Greenwich Village pottery store is deceiving. “Originally, I wanted things from all over the world,” Nathalie Smith says of the philosophy behind her exceedingly stylish shop. “But the aesthetic is really Asian: clean lines, pure shapes, nothing heavily adorned.” And most important, there’s nothing even vaguely resembling a matched set (“People can go to Pottery Barn for that”). It’s easy to spend hours browsing the long tables meticulously stacked with everything from dishes (soup bowls are $8–$22) to porcelain soy plates ($6), colored tumblers ($10), leather place mats ($34), and even lacquered serving trays ($200). Looking for flatware? Look elsewhere; this is a chopsticks-only establishment.

From the 2003 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine