I’ve always wanted gorgeous pottery and ceramic plates for when we host friends or family at our house for meals. And with all the brands and the competition out there, it’s hard to pick through the madness and find something you like.

In this review, I’ll detail how I found out about East Fork and why we decided to try the brand. We made our whole purchase with Quince, and I’ll also let you know how that went, from end to end. Let’s begin.

What is East Fork Pottery?

Plainly put, East Fork makes some darn gorgeous pottery and ceramic products.

Just browsing East Fork mugs, bowls and plates puts me at ease through the handmade look, the bold and vibrant colors and the lovely styling in the product photos I see online.

East Fork Pottery is based in the US! The company is based in Asheville, NC. They do great things like giving 1% of sales to “community partners,” or charitable organizations in the region.

Moreover, what you’ll find from East Fork is American-made styles, with no nonsense from shoddily-made stoneware from factories abroad. They even have real stores in Brooklyn, Asheville and Atlanta that you can visit to check out the look and feel of the pottery!

How I found East Fork at Quince

If you’ve read the rest of my home and lifestyle reviews, you probably know that we have a ton of Quince’s goods in the home.

Most recently, we tried out the new kitchen and cookware line from Quince. That led me to browsing the “dinnerware” and “serving-ware” collection offered by the company, which is currently offerings from partner brand East Fork.

I was drawn immediately to East Fork stoneware, because actually, it was kind of aspirational for me. This is the type of dinnerware and serveware I’ve noticed in restaurants when dining out and traveling, and thought, “I could never have this at home. It’s too cool.”

So when the time was right, Dan and I pulled the trigger: we agreed on one of East Fork’s color palette choices and ordered three types of East Fork stoneware for our home.

What we got!

We got the following, largely based on what was in stock and which colors we agreed on. I also wanted to make sure our stoneware from East Fork did not clash color-wise with our table linens from Quince (you’ll find these in my Quince Home Collection review.

We’re big fans of the Coupe Plate style, and in all transparency, the Dinner Plate was out of stock in Eggshell the day we were shopping, so we figured we could get those at a later date if they came back!

The style: what I like

The East Fork bowls, plates and “coupe plates” are essentially what I envisioned when I thought of the “adult” pottery I’d want displayed in our glass case, and the serving-ware I’d want to be using when having friends over for a meal.

I like that there were only four colors available from Quince when it came to the East Fork offering. I’m serious! I don’t deal well with analysis paralysis, so this made a less-stress shopping experience.

ALSO: East Fork Pottery has this “trendy laid-back restaurant” look to it. It’s the type of ceramic dining-ware that I’d find at a cool cafe in the city, a fresh and airy new American gastropub or a homegrown coffeeshop with an upscale ambiance.

Using my East Fork plates and bowls at home makes me feel less like I threw together a Monday night dinner, and a dab more like I’m dining mindfully on stoneware that means something.

The price

We have to talk about the price because ironically, the price on the East Fork pottery products doesn’t totally align with the other value prices you’d see on the Quince website.

I say that because Quince is known for “affordable luxury,” a term that led me to writing guides of mine like the best cheap things to know about from Quince.

So why East Fork pottery, which comes at a price point much closer to what I’d expect from West Elm?

Honestly, I think it’s just that East Fork products are gorgeous. They go with the minimalist Quince vibe and the buy-it-for-life because of the quality value proposition. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve certainly focused on investing in durable and quality goods that do not have to be replaced, like our Smithey skillet.

While I don’t drop this type of money on pottery every year, I think that we can manage doing so every 15-20 years. And because we were too indecisive at the time of building our wedding registry to choose upscale dinnerware, bowls and plates, the timing worked right for us with the cost of getting East Fork.

A quick thought on what you should know

Stoneware from East Fork is heavy. No, seriously: compared to other ceramics I’ve held, and also compared to our default bamboo bowls and plates that we use on a day to day basis at home, East Fork ceramic dinnerware has a certain weight to it.

I’m letting you know this for a few reasons: first of all, if you have weak shelving, stacks of East Fork ceramics may be too weight-y for your shelves!

Second, if you have children or teens who might plan to use your dishes, I think it is helpful to know that a stack of four East Fork coupe plates is pretty darn heavy, even for me to carry from room to room.

Lastly, if you consider yourself klutzy or if you have any doubts about carrying sturdy stoneware from your kitchen to where you dine on it, that is why I’m telling you this. Heavy stoneware clay dishes may not be for everyone, so this is my true disclaimer.

What else does Quince sell from East Fork?

The pottery offerings don’t stop with East Fork plates and bowls from Quince. In fact, the company’s first product that I noticed from the East Fork brand was the earthy coffee mugs.

From there, I’ve been checking out the serving-ware choices, like the Weeknight Serving Bowl, Serving Platter, Mixing Bowl and adorable Popcorn Bowl.

Why East Fork? (Positive attributes)

In reading more about East Fork before my shipment of plates and bowls arrived, I noticed that East Fork is a B-Corp company, and that’s probably why Quince acquired the selling partnership with them.

East Fork stoneware products are dishwasher and microwave safe, made of lead-free materials and handmade by real artisans. That’s right: they’re made by humans, as East Fork quotes it, which stands out right now because so many things in anyone’s home are factory-made without any personal touch at all.

For this reason, there are some variations in the lacquering and glazing on East Fork products, and that is what makes them so pretty.

Shipping and arrival

We got our East Fork order from Quince, so that was via the Quince website. Getting East Fork from Quince currently comes with some great benefits like the detailed shipping experience from Quince. The other benefit is the immediate cash back to your Quince account for future purchases when you buy East Fork products (this is Quince’s policy for buying “third party brands” on the Quince website, so that’s like a discount!).

So although we bought our three sets of four items at Quince, everything came in East Fork boxes with East Fork packaging.

Reporting damages

As we unpacked our coupe plates, uh oh: Dan noticed that one plate was broken. We took photos immediately, to show that we were not responsible for the breakage and that it came right out of the wrapping like that.

I had heard that Quince had very good customer service for this type of thing. I just hadn’t had the chance to experience yet. I moved forward with requesting a replacement.

Getting our exchange and replacement

I looked up how to report damaged shipments from Quince and the method is to request a return, and specifically an exchange, while choosing options from a drop-down menu that the product arrived broken or damaged. I had to upload a photo of my issue.

We figured we might have to send back the damaged item, but it didn’t totally make sense to do that because it’s not like Quince nor East Fork could re-sell the broken plate.

As my damage replacement was being processed, I received an email from Quince within a half hour. It was from a customer service staff person.

This service rep told me there was no need to send back the broken plate (the photo I uploaded would suffice) and that actually, because the plates are only produced as a set of four, Quince would be sending us a brand new set of 4 plates to make up for the problem!

This was great news and the overall experience was so seamless. The replacement set of four coupe plates came within three days and the problem was more than solved.

Thanks, Quince!

Worth it?

I say yes. While East Fork products come at more of a “west elm” and “Pottery Barn” price point, the value is excellent. East Fork stoneware is dishwasher safe, lead-free and American-made, with a positive impact as a trustworthy company that I feel is transparent.

To get East Fork pottery goods sold by Quince, shop the dinnerware and serveware collection.

More from Quince Home collections online

We are thrilled to have so many products in our home from Quince. To see more reviews, head to our Quince home collection review, as well as our Quince rug review, Quince stainless steel kitchenware review and Quince sheet set review.