As a native San Franciscan, Amy Dean’s childhood was filled with countless tea parties held in the eucalyptus groves of the Presidio. She still has the photos of herself and her school friends - wicker basket and all - to prove it.
Amy attended university in Europe, eventually settling in London, England where, after graduation, she attended a graduate course at Christie’s Auction House. The course led to a job with a mad antique textile dealer, but she was quickly stolen away from that job (by Ralph Lauren himself) to become the Creative Services Manager for the Ralph Lauren stores in the UK. Five years later Amy made the switch to the entertainment world as a prop buyer and set dresser for feature films, commercials, and pop videos (with some still photography styling to boot).
In 2001, having made the leap across the pond to San Francisco a few years earlier, Amy and Christopher opened La Place du Soleil, a small Anglo and French antique store in Russian Hill. Over the seven years that the store was in business, it gained a loyal following that bordered on the maniacal. Amy and Christopher loved running the boutique, only closing it when they realized that it was time to move on to their next dream: owning and operating an English-style tea room that reflects their unique esthetic and celebrates their love of tea
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Amy attended university in Europe, eventually settling in London, England where, after graduation, she attended a graduate course at Christie’s Auction House. The course led to a job with a mad antique textile dealer, but she was quickly stolen away from that job (by Ralph Lauren himself) to become the Creative Services Manager for the Ralph Lauren stores in the UK. Five years later Amy made the switch to the entertainment world as a prop buyer and set dresser for feature films, commercials, and pop videos (with some still photography styling to boot).
In 2001, having made the leap across the pond to San Francisco a few years earlier, Amy and Christopher opened La Place du Soleil, a small Anglo and French antique store in Russian Hill. Over the seven years that the store was in business, it gained a loyal following that bordered on the maniacal. Amy and Christopher loved running the boutique, only closing it when they realized that it was time to move on to their next dream: owning and operating an English-style tea room that reflects their unique esthetic and celebrates their love of tea
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Christopher Dean was born and raised in London, England. A natural born antiques dealer extraordinaire, he is the quintessential English gentlemen, even having been shipped off to boarding school at seven years old. Christopher began his career in the family advertising business, but his real passion was always ceramics and 18th century furniture, and so it wasn’t long before he left the cutthroat world of advertising for that of the mannered gentility of the London antique market. And there in all likelihood he would be to this day, living out the rest of his days in quiet dignity, perhaps affecting the use of a pipe in his golden years, had Amy not absconded with him and brought him here to the States.
Quickly adjusting to life in the Colonies with a speed that no one in their right mind could have predicted, he and Amy opened the fabulous La Place du Soleil which, with Christopher’s expertise and Amy’s natural sense of style, soon became a destination shopping experience for all in-the-know San Francisco shoppers.
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Quickly adjusting to life in the Colonies with a speed that no one in their right mind could have predicted, he and Amy opened the fabulous La Place du Soleil which, with Christopher’s expertise and Amy’s natural sense of style, soon became a destination shopping experience for all in-the-know San Francisco shoppers.
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Christopher and Amy met in 1994 in London at a dinner party held at the home that once belonged to the novelist George Eliot. Their mutual love - make that obsession - with tea, antiques, travel, and shopping drew them together instantly. After tying the knot at a lavish afternoon tea party ceremony in England, Amy and Christopher traveled back to Amy’s home of Northern California. They now live in a charming house in sunny Marin County along with their gorgeous little girl Daisy and their two wacky dogs, Stanley and Otis.
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