Pot Luck

Buy this bold dinnerware from the Denby Pottery Company and the company will give you a full two-year warning if they decide to discontinue your pattern. The English village of Denby has been home to the pottery business since 1809. More recent versions of the stuff can be used in the microwave or regular oven and they’re dishwasher-safe. You can find them at Chalmer’s, Gelson’s and Bullock’s stores.

Pop Biz

First there were premiums beers, and they begat a thousand slickly produced TV commercials and a demand for sophisticated packaging on a product that best goes with hot dogs and chips. Now there’s a premium pop. Remember good old regular-guy RC? Well, it’s, ahem, Royal Crown Draft these days, with a pedigreed list of ingredients--”pure cane sugar, the finest Kola nuts, all-natural flavors, pure filtered water”--but no cute initials, and no friendly cola packaging. This is soda that wears its colors as boldly as a, well, a premium beer. We thought at first it was a beer, in fact. So what does it taste like? The biggest difference between it and its mass-market competitors is a hyper caramelized flavor, almost raisiny. In fact, it’s kinda like a cheap Port. Only carbonated. At supermarkets.

Color Splash

We love these table runners and aprons for their bright colors and painterly look--just right for summer. The artists are part of a new business started by L.A. Goal, a nonprofit organization with educational, vocational and recreational programs for the developmentally disabled. Runners cost $35, aprons are $20. For information, call L.A. Goal/Inside-Out Productions in Culver City at (310) 838-5274, Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Tale o’ the Whisk

If you’re looking for a new way to stir up trouble . . . or sauces, check out these high-tech whisks from WMF Gourmet. They’ll get into the corners of saucepans that ordinary rounded whisks can’t. And they sure will look neat doing it. You can buy them at Table Manners in Santa Monica, various Bristol Farms stores and Jordano’s in Santa Barbara.