Heath Ceramics

I love the Sausalito location more. But, if you can’t get there, then a visit to the Mission area facility is definitely worth it. The large store offers an overwhelming (but wonderful) selection of Heath’s classic ceramics for your consideration and purchase, as well as a small number of Alabama Chanin textile pieces (these are superb.) There is a factory attached to the store, so you can get some idea of how the ceramics are created, as well as a bookstore — I long for the books about Heath! A BlueBottle coffee shop is attached, and you can sip away and either ponder purchase not yet made, or items now in your possession! Enjoy!

I realized recently the answer to (the very hard) question: what’s your favorite coffee shop in SF? It’s definitely Heath. I have been coming here for years — it’s a great combination of coffee and warm, industrial ambience. Perfect place for a conversation with friends.

Love the ginger molasses cookie. I can taste/​eat the ginger peel

Ive seen their goods at so many restaurants. Finally got to see their largish facility. Was just in the neighborhood for an event and had some time to kill. Always admire the plateware. Just wish i could afford the collection of stuff i lust after!

From the moment I walked in, this place took my breath away. Near the entrance, there is a L-​shape of cushioned seating to hang out and read (then purchase) some of the design or childrens books on display. The walls throughout the «store» are lined with beautiful ceramic pieces for purchase, mainly plates, bowls, and cups. Though on the pricey side, they are top-​quality and flawlessly made.
The staff members warmly welcome each patron when they walk into Heath Ceramics, educating them about the various pieces and answering their questions about anything related to ceramics. In addition to the displays of ceramic items, there are tile samples available for purchase, as well as classes you can sign up for. This place is just awesome, even if you just want to walk around and browse the beautiful artwork crafted in-​house. I would love to see some of them being made!

Unbreakable.
Great movie:
Great service: After accidentally dropping something and breaking it one of the extremely friendly staff members said «don’t worry, we’re a ceramics store».
Which would be irrelevant if Heath Ceramics didn’t offer products as impeccable as their service. Excellent design. Timeless style. Brilliants pops of color.
Product might be breakable. These five stars are not.

If you plan on going to Heath whilst in SF try to sign up for a factory tour before visiting the shop and showroom, it’s free and lasts approximatively an hour. It’ll give you a bit of a background story to any piece of ceramics you might already own or wanna buy, truly passionating. There’s also a Blue Bottle Coffee in the building where you can treat yourself after the visit. Divine.

Big fan of Heath Ceramics! When you first arrive, you can tell this is FOR REAL. There’s a Blue Bottle Shop on the premises on the west end, the cavernous factory for tile-​making in the center, and the delightful shop on the east end. If MidCentury is your thing, Heath is a must visit stop. They also do a fantastic job of displaying their wares, not something I can say about most ceramics shops. The super stacks of plates and bowls is inspirational. Everything they have serves as the best type of inspiration.

If I had a home, it would be completely decked out in Heath Ceramics, from the dishes in the cupboards to the tile backsplash to the kitchen sink to the cookbooks in the bookshelf!
Unfortunately I’m not rich and can barely afford rent in SF, but that’s not anyone’s fault but my own ;)
Browsing the Heath showroom in the Mission is still a fun shopping excursion. How exciting can ceramics be? Actually, pretty cool (for adults only probably). My favorite part of the store is the custom tile section, where you could potentially design your own gorgeous tile design for floors or décor.
Come in and see for yourself!

I managed to avoid Heath Ceramics on four earlier trips to SF, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to resist buying something to add to my growing selection of ceramics at home. Finally on my most recent visit a friend too me for coffee right next door and then it seemed just wrong not to take a peak inside.
Big mistake.
Of course I fell in love with just about everything and insisted on buying a set of gorgeous blue glazed tea mugs to take home to Australia. I love the quality of the dishes from Heath and admire their dedication to high quality and slick design after so many years of production.
Next time I’m in SF can someone accidentally take me for a coffee next door?

I will warn you, it’s very easy to fall in love with their collections and if you really want to see all of it, go to their Mission location, not the one in the Ferry Building.
Also, they are expensive. It’s not budget friendly at all, but it’s quality pieces for a lifetime. Their dinnerware items are sturdy and that’s an understatement. They’re heavy, a tad bulky, but can take an everyday beating. I really, really loved their new line inspired by Chez Panisse. This is not a store that you can walk out of an only expect to pay $ 200 for a full set of dinnerware, you can easily spend $ 1800 for a full set for 12 people. Like I said, it’s something to build, not spend your entire monthly salary at once on. The other thing I would advise, is register for your wedding items here. Get other people to pay for it!
Now, for their tile selection. Their basics start at $ 18+ tax per square foot. Take that into consideration when you can go to any other shop and grab something for about $ 9/​sq. ft. — but the quality is amazing. Their pieces are all hand made and if you buy their tiles, go with one of their referrals for installation. You don’t want to pay $ 30/​sq. ft. and have a moron install it wrong on your walls. All of their sales people are extremely knowledgeable and always ask questions about any lead time that you need for your tile orders.
Now, unless they have sales, they only get 4 stars from me, because it’s out of reach for 90% of 20 somethings, unless that is, you’re getting married.

Advice for wedding registries!
I registered for and my family, friends and I purchased thousands of dollars worth of stuff at Heath. The products are great and I like supporting sustainable, local businesses — it’s pricey, but worth it.
I found the customer service to be a mixed bag. Most people are very nice, especially everyone I interacted with online. They asked for feedback on the registry tool and I saw improvements that seemed to be in response to my feedback, so that is the sign of a great company!
On the flip side, we went to the Mission store twice — first because they sent us the wrong stuff from one of our guests order and second to buy the remaining items on my registry. Some of the staff were difficult to communicate with and almost felt a bit hostile toward us, when I think we should be treated like special customers and walk away feeling super excited about our new stuff. I also bought something for a friend from her registry and it was shipped without my name, so she had no clue who it was from. Not cool!
Despite these hiccups, I would still recommend a registry with them because the products are so great. You should read this advice though. Some of their policies aren’t 100% intuitive, and we almost lost out on $ 100 savings:
1) I did the traditional registry. If you do this, you have the option to buy anything that was not purchased for you at the end for a 15% discount.
2) We did a «mix and match» custom place setting. The place setting gives you a discounted price over the regular item purchase price. When I registered, you could not move the order of the requested gifts around and the mix and match landed at the bottom (they have since changed this). It is also very hard for people to tell what they are buying because they see a generic black and white picture that is not what your «mix and match» set is. Hence, very few people bought us plate settings and instead bought us the bowls, serving platters, mugs, etc.
3) When we went to fulfill the stuff left on our registry with the 15% discount code, it was mostly the plate settings. We were told the registry discount would not apply to the place setting price because it is already discounted over the price of buying the stuff separately and they never do double discounts.
4) My advice is to put the place settings at the top of the registry to encourage your family and friends to buy the place settings first. If I could do it over again, I probably would have returned everything else for credit to fulfill the place settings until those were closed… that way you can be sure you really get the 15% off at the end when you are buying the leftovers versus just paying the same prices anyone walking off the street can get. I know they have an alternative to the the conventional registry too, so may be worth comparing against that too.
More info: my husband emailed the online support and, in the end, they did right by us with this whole discount business. Still easiest to try to get your place settings purchased first, but kudos to the online customer service folks.

I just wish I could afford it; this stuff is stunningly beautiful. The space is worth a visit not only for the showroom but a glimpse inside to the factory, and an informative and engaging display on the history of Heath.
Blue Bottle coffee too. Yay!

This place is super adorable, they’ve got all kinds of dishware, silverware, as well as a broad array of textiles (napkins, dish cloths, runners). Don’t know if I’d ever shop here though. The wooden whale in — which at this point I still have no clue what it could possibly used for — is $ 70. A pepper mill I saw was $ 155! Anyways, super fun for browsing, especially if you want some of Blue Bottle’s single origin coffee next door. Note that I said «browsing.»

What a neat little place! I follow someone on Instagram who is a fan of Heath so on our last visit, hubby and I decided to pay a visit. Based on the prices I’ve seen on the website, I already knew what to expect.
We hopped on a bus directly after lunch and made our way to what first appeared to be a more working class neighborhood of SF. We walked towards our destination after the bus dropped us off and realized we were kind of in a pretty artsy fartsy neighborhood. After a quick stop in a British gift shop (located in someone’s artist studio), we made our way to Heath.
The place was bustling when we were there! Bonus points for coffee place attached to their store which was super cute and makes you want to buy everything until you realized just a few pieces would cost the same as your entire SF trip. (Ok, almost.)
I walked out with a couple serving bowls and platters. When I told the dude ringing me up I was getting on an airplane in a couple hours, he very kindly made my purchases travel-​ready, using as much newspaper and cardboard as humanly possible. We were able to stow them in our carry on’s no problemo.
I hope to build my collection slowly but surely — I just love their color palettes. The surrounding neighborhood is kind of neato too. And they’re just a quick busride away !

After a long absence from Four Barrel, I noticed they have changed their saucers and accompanying dishes. I was immediately captivated by the new ones, muted and dull in color and matte in texture, as they reminded me of something my friend had conceptualized but could not find in Brooklyn. With the holidays quickly approaching and being in dire need of gift ideas for said friend, I went home and did some digging on the good ol’ Internet and found that Heath Ceramics makes a rather similar one. Even better, the Mission locale has a factory right next to the storefront, so you can watch the professionals work their craft. For the record, I was miserable at ceramics when I took it in high school, but my eye for color and design is thankfully much better than my crafting skills, which ultimately lead me to Heath Ceramics. Heath’s color palate is right up my alley, so it was love at first sight (on the computer screen).
I dragged a buddy here today and also fell in love with the converted warehouse space Heath occupies. Beautiful colors in the most perfect hues embrace you as soon as you walk in. Simple aesthetic and clean lines, everywhere. I admittedly got a little shutter-​happy and ended up snapping tons of pictures before remembering the purpose of our visit. This place is a photographer’s dream. Anyway, I was able to pick out a cute saucer/​plate combo nearly identical to the ones used at Four Barrel. I found out that this location also offers a factory tour, so it looks like I’ll have to make a return trip sometime in the very near future.
Bonus: There’s a Blue Bottle sharing the space, just in case you want caffeine to numb the pain before or after Heath takes a sizable chunk out of your wallet. :)

Ethical. Environmentally conscious. Aesthetic. Ceramics.
I want a cupboard stocked with the simple, unifying, and organic ceramic dinner ware produced at Heath ceramics. The shop and ceramic production are collocated in San Francisco’s Mission District.
The complementary Heath Home collection features other home décor items that will look equally good adorning your living space.
The sales staff is friendly, knowledgable, and creative. They speak to you as if you’re new friends and educate you on how great a company Heath is.

Cool place to visit!
This was a random discovery I made when walking around with my friend who was visiting the area. If you like designs and dishes, this would be a perfect place to just stop by and admire the ceramics. I love their dishes & whatnot for the color combinations. I would buy cups from here, if only they were a tad bit cheaper. Maybe in the future? :) Still, fun to dream.
You can also (kind of) sneak a peak to the ceramics facility from the clear, transparent walls. I don’t know if they have a tour available, but if there is it would be awesome to visit.
Also, note that there’s an awesome Blue Bottle Coffee location attached right with this shop.

The SF Heath Ceramics Potrero Hill location is a must visit for any admirer of Heath Ceramics. It’s their largest in the Bay Area and the home of their tile making manufacturing facility. There’s a café that serves Blue Bottle coffee, places to sit and merchandise arranged in areas that look like the dining room, kitchen and living room. You can also look into the tile manufacturing area.
The displays of their mid-​century ceramic tableware and tile pieces are gorgeous and so are the pieces. Each piece was made by hand. You can find vases, pitchers, dishes, tea pots, creamers, sugar bowls and more. The dinnerware sets start at $ 80.
The selection is better than their other locations.
The non-​Heath made merchandise they carry is elegant, foodie centric, and stylish, including glassware, jewelry, Lodge cast iron cookware, flatware, knives, cookbooks, candles, jams, greeting cards, etc.
If you buy Heath pieces as gifts, I suggest tucking them into one of their cute signature canvas tote bags.

Let’s face it, the ceramics are beautiful, and classic, and can add the critical touch you need for your mid-​century modern manse.
But if you come in here thinking you’ll get some kind of deal over retail, think again, pussycat.
Heath makes beautiful, historic, trademark mid-​century designs in tile and ceramic tableware along with a roster of other products by like minded designers.
But bring your personal banker and perhaps even your own personal Jesus, because you may need the assets of the heavenly kingdom to afford much.
I found the same to be true of the «factory store» in Sausalito – it’s not an outlet.
But then again, are there any outlets anymore?