When most people go out to eat, they're concerned with what's on top of their plate. But Jono Pandolfi is not most people, and he's much more preoccupied with what's underneath. "I'm a plate flipper," he quips. It's become sort of an obsession of his—flipping over plates and bowls to see which potter scored placement in the restaurant. They're his competition, after all.
Try plate flipping in New York City's most famous spots—the ones with reservations that book out months in advance—and you'll see Jono's name stamped on the bottom of the dinnerware. Over a decade ago, he found a niche, and so he filled it.
"My first opportunity to do some ceramic work was Cafe 2 and Terrace 5 at MOMA, and that’s where I realized a need," Jono explains. "After that, it was an amazing opportunity I felt I had discovered, which is that if you market yourself to chefs and say, 'Hey, would you like to design some plates of your own?', they would always say yes. So from there, that was the spark of an idea that launched the company."
Daniel Humm's NoMad and Eleven Madison Park were early gets for Jono's eponymous brand, too. Since those early years, he's placed plates, bowls, mugs, whatever in over 200 different restaurants—many in New York, but some in California, Colorado, Illinois, and Florida, too. "I've had the fortune of working with these chefs who I've been aware of and respected for a long time," Jono says.
Years later, big names are still discovering Jono and wanting in. The now-closed Momofuku Nishi even overhauled its dinnerware collection to include Jono's originals. "It's a cool feeling: After this long, David Chang starts buying your plates," he says.
As the brand proudly posted on Instagram, the producers of the hit show The Bear asked them about using their dinnerware in season 2. It's fitting that the coolest show about restaurants collaborated with the brand making the coolest ceramics for restaurants.
Evidently, Jono's not alone in his plate-flipping endeavors. The majority of the company's direct to consumer e-commerce is people that see the dinnerware in restaurants then want some for themselves. "That’s how our retail business grows," Jono explains. "That’s why it’s just a fun, cool, natural fit. We focus on the hospitality world, and the resulting product is something that’s unique enough for someone’s home as well."
You can shop the collection via jonopandolfi.com or on a couple popular digital registry sites: Blueprint and Zola. (Shop the most popular designs below! P.S. You can purchase anything off those sites just as you would any other website; you don't need to have a registry.) And on the first Friday of every month, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Jono and his crew open their Union City, NJ, studio to the public. You can watch the talented potters at work and purchase what Jono calls "seconds," or overstock from restaurant orders.
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Sarah Weinberg is the deputy editor at Delish and has covered food, travel, home, and lifestyle for a number of publications, including Food Network Magazine and Country Living. She's originally from the Bay Area, has an unhealthy affinity for the Real Housewives of Anywhere, and harbors strong feelings about fruit salad.
