Our Bedding Toolbox.

As more and more of our customers at French Quarter Linens are keen on creating a unique bedding ensemble that can't be found anywhere else, we've been working hard on figuring out a way to make it easier to imagine the possibilities.

If you haven't been into our stores recently, your next visit should be inspiring. Not only do we have several new ensembles displayed in our stores, we have hundreds (yes, hundreds; and yes, they all had to be ironed by hand!) of boudoir pillows dressed with options. We're getting ourselves outfitted so our customers can sit down, relax and play with the pillows. It's so much fun to pull the favorites off the wall, toss them on the table and see which ones work best to tell the story in your mind's eye.

And it's easy to have them all in one location. It's our new toolbox!

The photo above shows what we've done in our Pearl District store, and we have a sensational new table (hailing from France, of course!) to spread out around.

Come play with us soon!

Seeking Leadership!

Do you know a Seattleite who would like to interview for our store Sales Manager position?

We need a dynamic and proven sales performer who is also a great coach.

Please send retail heroes my direction by having them send a resume to job@frenchquarterlinens.com.

Job is posted here: http://seattle.craigslist.org/bus/143774060.html.

Thank you for your help.

What happens in Vegas...

Yep, here we are, Rolfe, Syslee and Tim--
French Quarter's executive team, posing with the Elvis statue at The Embassy Suites in Las Vegas last week!

What's wrong with this picture? No, we were not on vacation and no, we weren't having a comany retreat. Do you think we'd be at the Embassy Suites if we were?!

Hey, we're Strip folk that know how to play when it's time to play.

But it wasn't really play time as we were attending a three-day retail selling seminar put on by Harry Friedman. He's the author of the book "No Thanks, I'm Just Looking" and a powerful, funny, intense, experienced and entertaining speaker. (And yes, we did make it down to the Strip every evening for a dose pandemonium. While we weren't overly impressed with the new Wynn, we highly recommend the Sidecar in the elevated lobby bar http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/)

One of our strategies over the next two years is to become a much better professional selling organization. Since I founded the company eleven years ago, our focus has been on providing the best possible merchandise, displayed in the best possible way in our stores. Now that we know how to do that almost without thinking, our goal is to hone the way our staff presents the merchandise to our customers. From a customer's perspective, it's all about getting solutions to challenges with a high degree of commitment on our part.

And Harry is going to help us get there! This three day event was really just the beginning and a way for us to understand the overall strategy. Over the next five months we will be working directly with Harry and his team in Los Angeles to implement what we've learned.

Stay tuned!

And if you have thoughts, good or bad, about your experiences at French Quarter over the years, I hope you'll take a few moments to send me an email at tim@frenchquarterlinens.com.

Spring cleaning!

Yesterday, March 1, was our first glimpse of spring in Portland after an unusually wet, cold and miserable winter. The mercury touched 60 and no coats were required--glorious! What with shelves laden with product, and more on its way, spring cleaning of our towel and rug departments sprang to the fronts of our minds.

As we just received our first shipment of colorful, pattern-ful rugs and towels......

.....we've decided to make room for them by marking down many fall/winter colors in our extensive towel and rug inventory. Beginnning tomorrow, March 3, each store will be offering assorted Super Pile Towels, Twill Towels, Reversible Rugs and Must Rugs at 33% off original prices; and we have plenty of stock for matching sets and full bathroom ensembles.

This offering won't be advertised, so please help us spread the word!

Happy indulging.

An excuse to be together....

One must always find an excuse to be with Robert Reynolds, especially if it's to be in the kitchen! He's a long-time friend of ours--more than a friend, really. Robert is like that wise, witty, urbane, eccentric and colorful uncle that we all have, or wish we had. He shows up when you're least expecting it, bearing food and ripe with stories of his travels and intereactions with those great and small in the international food world. He's one of the family and we love it when he's sitting at our dining table.

Somehow Robert ended up in Portland after a long career as a restaurant owner in San Francisco (Remember Le Trou?). For those of us that explain what he does for a living these days, we just say that he's a chef's chef, and that he spends his time teaching and inspiring. And he seems to do it everywhere: West Coast, East Coast, in between the coasts, and, of course, in his (and our) dear old France.

He's got a new book out, pictured above, though it's really much more than a book; something created for the treasure table as a beautifully bound object, and something to read next time a bout of wanderlust hits you and you need your senses tingled by meanderings of the Old Country. It's a kind of travelogue with enlightening observations about people, places, culture and food--and recipes! (Go immediately to page 129 and make the Mousseline Sauce and serve it over blanched asparagus TONIGHT; turn the page and marvel at the France of old and the France of new by inspecting a copy of Robert's computerized restaurant tab from a recent meal at La Coupole in Paris.)

An Excuse to be Together is offered for sale in our Pearl District store for $30. We're happy to ship you a copy if you can't make it in. It's a lovely gift for the hard-to-buys on your list. It's also a unique addition to your own library.

Here's Robert's website for even more info:
http://www.chefrobertreynolds.com/

And here's a podcast interview if you'd like a voice to put with a book-- you know, like how much better David Sedaris's stories are when you know his voice?
http://www.podcast.net/show/8040 And go to #4 and hit play.

Bon appetit!