A couple things you wouldnt know by looking at this picture:The Wisconsin girl you see here (who visited us last weekend) is unbreakable. Literally. She could bench press you.And That coffee cup shes holding has a backstory. It might be the most basic and the most extraordinary thing we have here. It started with an obsession in 2015 to find the perfect diner cup. (The kind you see in old school roadside cafes, that havent been improved on in a century). This type earned the nickname hammer mugs because they are virtually indestructible (you really can drive a nail with them) This made them the go-to for every camp & blue collar roadside diner, where they could survive multiple drops from overworked waitresses and overtired truckers.Our search led us to a company thats been making them since 1871. The folks at Homer Laughlin China dug up their Green Bay Stripe paint color from their archives, and took the time to school us on the difference between traditional underglaze + real hand pinstriping, versus the fast & cheap printing methods most employ today in overseas factories.Its not cheap.Or fast.Or easy.We might be crazy, but weve convinced ourselves that a swig of straight black coffee somehow tastes better out of one of these. (Try it when you visit us next – Some of you will think were overly nostalgic, but there will be some will get why we spent years obsessing on how to get this right.)Thank you, @hlc_dinnerware. …for every last one of those hand glazed, finished, pinstriped plates, cups & mugs. It helps makes us feel like weve just taken camp one step closer to what it must have felt like to have dinner at the Wandawega Hotel back in its glory days. Grateful to know there are still American companies like yours employing 4th generations artisans 140 years later (through wars, pandemics and economic depressions) and still going strong.@ambermiller9 #homerlaughlin

February 6, 2021 • Published by Tereasa Surratt