Getting the Scoop on Bargains

Phillip Mills and George Piazzi like to dish.

The longtime friends, owners of Dishes a la carte, sell quality porcelain china and glassware at discounted prices.

The small shop near Downtown Los Angeles carries a wide selection of durable dining essentials--many of which are not sold in retail outlets--such as cups, saucers, bowls, glasses, napkin rings, place mats and plates. The kitchenware, in more than 100 colors, patterns and styles, is stacked neatly in the 700-square-foot store.

The owners, a former insurance broker and a home furnishing salesman, display the items in wood cabinets and on decorative crates. Fresh flowers and eclectic artwork add to the shop’s ambience.

For the bargain hunter, the prices are hard to beat. Prices range from 75 cents to $40 for a decorative porcelain bowl. Prices for a single salad plate range from 75 cents to $5 depending on style and size. A coffee cup goes for $1 to $3, and if you add a matching saucer it costs only an additional $1.50.

Many of the items, which include popular name brands, are priced substantially below retail prices. For example, a Libby glass that sells for $4.95 in most stores costs $2 at Dishes a la carte, which purchases merchandise directly from manufacturers. New shipments of merchandise arrive weekly.

Mills, 55, and Piazza, 54, both Pennsylvania natives, met in the early 1960s while working at a retail store in Allentown, Pa. Mills went on to own and operate a restaurant in Hazleton, Pa., while Piazza moved to Los Angeles and sold home furnishings to large corporations, hospitals and military installations.

When Mills moved to Los Angeles in 1985 to work as an insurance broker, he and Piazza began thinking about opening a business together. Eager to trade paperwork and business suits for control of their own company, they originally considered opening a restaurant but decided it would be too costly.

Mills says he became interested in selling china last year after a visit to New York City, where he discovered a store that specialized in selling discounted kitchen gadgets. He immediately contacted Piazzi about opening a similar store in Southern California.

“I saw a store that inspired me,” said Mills, now a Santa Monica resident. “I thought: Why doesn’t Los Angeles have a store like this?”

The duo put their entrepreneurial dream in motion. They found such local distributors as Inglewood-based china manufacturer C. F. Coors and Libby Glassware in Los Angeles as well as major manufacturers from New York that were willing to sell factory overruns at discounted prices.

Since October, when Dishes a la carte opened, the store has managed to line up goods that appeal to a broad range of customers.

“People can come in here and buy a wedding gift for $25,” said Mills. “And if you have a family, you can buy nice china that you can keep without [it] falling apart.”

Dishes a la carte, 5650 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles. Hours are from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Information: (213) 938-6223.