Free Dinnerware With Every Dinner!

Here's a million dollar idea for steakhouse operators out there. After a customer enjoys a nice dinner at your restaurant, allow each member of the party to choose one piece of the table setting to take home. So for example, if there were five in the party, they could each take a dinner plate. Or they could each take a different piece...one dinner plate, one salad plate, one bowl, one cup and one saucer...that would make one table setting. Half a dozen visits later they could start on serving pieces. Hmmm, this will need more thought.
One thing for certain, you'll need cool restaurant ware. Plain white ain't going to cut it. Some of the coolest restaurant ware ever made were the various western motifs designed by Till Goodan for Wallace China...Rodeo, Boots & Saddle, Pioneer Trails and others.
There's a fabulous water pitcher in the Rodeo pattern on eBay right now, ending 11/12. Bidding on this will probably end about $200 or $225, but could just as easily take off to $500. Maybe a lot more if cousin Willard starts bidding, he got kicked in the head back in his rodeo cowboy days.
If you're collecting the Rodeo line remember two things: 1) it's going to take a lot of money, and 2) there is a reproduction line on the market but its easy to recognize as it has neither "California" or "Wallace China" as part of the backstamp.