Casual tabletop is growing in importance as a business for gourmet retailers, with the result that manufacturers are turning to that market for new product introductions. Manufacturers say gourmet retailers are trendsetters, and that is the attraction.

“If the product appeals to independent retailers then it will appeal to everyone and have sales success in every market,” says Keith Morrison, president of Signature Housewares. “We always think of the independent retailer when developing our product lines,” he says.

A key reason for that, say retailers and manufacturers, is that the tabletop market is changing as consumers demand a wider range of casual tabletop styles. For instance, potter Tena Payne has developed a firing technique that lets her unique hand-turned dinnerware stand up to the abuse of a restaurant kitchen. Payne first sold her Earthborn dinnerware line to hotel restaurants like Sensei, at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, and says consumers sought her out. “They went out to dinner and then wanted to know where to buy the dinnerware,” Payne says. Thanks to that consumer demand Payne now targets the high-end gourmet retail channel, as well as the restaurant world. To date she has more than 60 independent retail stores as customers.

While Payne’s dinnerware features a unique organic style, a key element for any gourmet retailer looking to get into tabletop is whiteware, says Bob Coviello, president of the buying group H.T.I. “I think retailers should have twelve linear feet of whiteware, at least,” Coviello says. Still, Coviello warns retailers to be selective and not get caught “competing on place settings, with big box stores, because you can’t show enough of them,” he says.

Mike Fear, owner of Bath, Maine’s  Now You’re Cooking likes Pillivuyt’s line of white dinnerware and serving pieces. “It’s gorgeous and we do quite well with it,” Fear says.

Kerry Niesen is returning to the Gourmet Housewares Show this year as a buyer for City Kitchens, as he has for years. This time though, there’s a twist: Niesen now owns the store.

Niesen bought City Kitchens — a downtown Seattle fixture — from founder Robert Hammond this past fall. And Niesen knew what he was buying: he had been working at the store for the past 13 years, starting at age 19.

Although Niesen plans few immediate changes, he is putting his own spin on the store’s merchandising plan, bringing a wider tabletop assortment to what he describes as a “ hardcore housewares” store.

“We have started building a dinnerware business around certain lines. People now know to come and look for dinnerware here,” he says.