Take a random stroll down Clement Street and you'll smell old time pizzerias, peer into modish boutiques, drool over Cantonese menus, and browse Russian markets. You'll also churn up a surprise shop or two. One such tree-shaded shop is Period George.

Walking into this store that stocks 18th and 19th century culinaria from all over the globe, your eyes light on glittering piles of scrolled cutlery, gilded, blossom-sprayed teacups as thin as eggshells, and tiny butter domes. For me, a Anglophile of the Brideshead Revisited and Nancy Mitford variety, Period George is dining and kitchen heaven. I start to conjure up vast dinner parties where each guest has their own weensy salt cellars complete with delicate silver spoons and me serving punch with the most painfully elegant toddy ladle. I've never been the biggest fan of the idea of poached eggs, but a set of blush and bashful pink eggcups and a polished toast rack or two might go far to change my mind.



Being the cocktail chick that I am, I couldn't resist snatching close two elegant eau-de-vie glasses at the end of my extensive browse. One is embellished with etched cherries for kirsch and the other with grapes for grappa. You could spend hours and still not completely take in all the beautiful objects tucked away in every corner of this minute shop. It's going to take lots of trips just to turn over every possible piece of Limoges china.

Period George
No. 7 Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94118

415.752.1900

Tuesday-Saturday 11 am-7 pm