If you’ve had the good fortune to have a meal at one of Il Buco‘s restaurants, you likely left feeling the warm afterglow of a good meal and good conversation. The experience is less like dining in a restaurant and more like attending a cozy candle-lit dinner party.

It makes sense then that the motto of Il Buco Vita, the tableware and home decor store that sprang from the original restaurant, is: “Every Table, A Story.” The stories here, though, belong to the ceramic plates, hand-blown glasses, woven tablecloths, and other artisan-made Italian housewares curated by its founding team—Donna Lennard (the owner and founder of the restaurants), architect Lorenzo Radi, and artist Antonello Radi. The shop is a place for the three friends to share their handmade finds, much of it from the Old World.

Last month, Il Buco Vita opened its first West Coast outpost, in an open-air shopping center in Culver City, CA. Unlike their small shops in NYC’s East Village and Amangansett, NY, their LA location is large and airy, with an industrial vibe: “Previously it was a Japanese-inspired fish restaurant opened by a group from Australia,” says Donna. “We softened the space with our signature palette of soft whites, incandescent lighting, and warm antique rugs and furnishings.”

Below, she shares the details on Il Buco Vita’s new digs at at 8820 Washington Blvd, Suite 101.

Photography by Ingalls Photography, courtesy of Il Buco Vita.

See also:

• Shopper’s Diary: A Poet-Collector’s Finds at Pidgin in Upstate NY
• Shopper’s Diary: Landline in Paris, a French-American Shopkeeper’s Answer to Plastic-Free Living
• Shopper’s Diary: The Great Commune Shop Experiment in LA