I COME FROM an Italian-American family, which means I’ve been training my whole life to host. I can pop open tinned fish and chill wine faster than you can say, “We’re in the neighborhood.” I also keep a shelf in my home that I call “the Porta shelf,” stocked with entertainment-worthy homeware, such as handblown glass vases, and named for the European tableware and home furnishing shop in Brooklyn.

The word “porta” means “door” in Italian, and the shop is indeed an entry point to every corner of Europe. Whenever I’m in the borough’s Cobble Hill neighborhood, I explore Porta’s collections of plates from Portugal, glassware from the south of France, linens from Italy, and candelabras from Spain. The shop’s owners, Alice Russotti and Francesca del Balzo, are lifelong friends who grew up in London enjoying the ease of European gatherings. When they moved to Brooklyn and had young families, they wanted to fill their homes with the everyday pieces that defined their childhoods, items with character that weren’t too precious. Unable to find such homeware in New York, they decided to source it themselves.

Porta is a manifestation of its owners’ approach to hosting; It’s welcoming, generous, and cozy. The shop has enough tableware for a 40-person gathering but its curation ensures you won’t be overwhelmed. “The things that we love have stories or makers behind them,” Russotti explains, “and they’re not mass-made. They have whimsy and color and expression and history — a contemporary sensibility but a technique or a tradition to them that can tie back.” She knows these artisans personally, and I watched as she scanned the shop, stopping at each piece.

On a typical sourcing trip, Russotti and del Balzo wake up at 5 a.m. to drive three hours to meet an artisan recommended by a trusted friend, just to ask, “Can we sell some of your things in the United States?” Here are several gorgeously crafted, thoughtfully sourced items they've found.