The best present from ALGABAR HOME & LIFE, an airy, loftlike boutique in Los Angeles, is a visit to the store itself, where co-owners Gail Baral and Robert Wain take turns greeting clients with fragrant cups of rooibos (red bush) tea from South Africa and personal timers to remind them of expiring parking meters outside. It's easy to forget — about the meter and all else — once you're ensconced among Algabar's beautifully curated collection of bath products, tea, artisanal food and home accessories from around the world.
But if a visit is not in the cards, Baral and Wain will put together custom gift boxes for you. Options might include a Mariage Frères glass teapot and two Christiane Perrochon stoneware teacups with Marco Polo tea ($465); an Italian home fragrance in a glass decanter with grapevine infusion sticks ($350); or Robert Lambert blood-orange simple syrup, a pair of Roost stemless Champagne flutes and a set of French linen coasters ($120). Your gift will be presented in a Chinese handwoven basket, a Japanese wooden box or Algabar's signature black container.
342 South La Brea Avenue; 323-954-9720; algabar.com.
—SALLY HORCHOW
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