Calistoga Pottery Keeps the Fires Burning
Nestled at the end of a long gravel drive off Highway 29 just before the bend in the road that ushers you into the fairytale-like wine country town of Calistoga, Jeff and Sally Manfredi’s Calistoga Pottery studio and retail shop has welcomed locals and tourists alike since 1980.
And that’s just one page in their book. Much of the elegantly simple pottery cookware and tabletop items the Manfredis jointly craft there graces the tables and tasting rooms at many of our area’s most discerning restaurants, inns and wineries.
The Manfredis’ special talent for creating pottery that is not only beautiful but also tough enough to do service in the kitchens at Bottega and Calistoga Ranch, among many others, was honed during Jeff ’s time in the restaurant business. He “gets it.”
The couple first met when Jeff was studying art under Sally’s father, a professor at Cornell University. Little did Sally’s mother know when she asked Jeff, who had become a family friend, to “check in on” Sally while she was attending art school in Greece during his own European travels, that the two would fall in love.
It was not long before the couple headed back to the States—Jeff to San Francisco, where he worked as a cook at Scott’s Seafood, throwing pots on the side, and Sally to Oakland to finish her bachelor of fine arts degree at California College of the Arts.
The couple eventually moved to Bodega Bay where they opened their first studio, jumping into the pottery crafting business with both feet and their whole hearts. Their first large order was for cioppino bowls for Scott’s Seafood. When a former fellow Scott’s Seafood chef bought the Calistoga Inn, the Manfredis joined him, soon thereafter purchasing the site at which they raised their business, and two daughters.
You can find Jeff throwing pots, and Sally hand decorating them, most every day of the year at Calistoga Pottery, and they will be glad to see you and show you around.
1001 Foothill Blvd., Calistoga; 707.942.0216; CalistogaPottery.com
