Shop visit: The Fountain Pen Shop, Monrovia, California

[Goodwhiskers]

This is a great shop!

 

Fred Krinke and his crew (of two?) are in the Los Angeles area, on the south side of the city of Monrovia, near the city of El Monte, not far from the 210 and the 605 (farther from the 10).

 

Some of you who attend pen shows might know them already. Fred gave me the flyer for the L.A. Pen Show (coming up in February). They also put on events at the shop; they had just held a "Pen Fair" with some pen company reps.

 

The website

 

http://www.tmgp.com/cgi-bin/nph-tame/penshop/index.html

 

is informational only. Replies to e-mail are prompt.

 

The photograph on their website does not do justice to the luscious interior of the shop:

wall-to-wall fountain pens for sale (no exaggeration),

many models, both new stock and reconditioned/restored,

in many modern and old brands including Esterbrook and Eversharp.

 

They repair pens.

 

They sell ink stain removers (Amodex and Ink Nix)

and several brands of ink including Private Reserve and Noodler's.

 

I walked out with a bottle each of Noodler's Black, Namiki/Pilot Blue, and Amodex (with the brush in the cap). My joy from the recent recovery of my VP helped me maintain enough self-control not to buy any pens .

[FrankB]

Thanks for checking in about your visit. I have done some mail order business with Fred, mostly repairs, and I have been satisfied with his work. Of all the pen shops in the U. S., I would like to see Fred's the most. Lucky you!

[Marsilius]

Oh, but how I dream about going there! When I finally get a day off, and this semester is over and all the fires are put out (not just the forest fires...we did have rain today), I plan to tell my family I have some errands to do, and then take the car straight to Monrovia. It will be my first real pen shop visit! Maybe I'll stay the whole day...

Mars

 

 

[JayLo]

Thanks Goodwhiskers!. I'm in Pasadena regularly and Monrovia is a 20 minute ride from there. There are so few quality pen shops in this huge L.A. area.

[tknechtel]

This shop is wonderful! Fred and his niece Judy are the nicest people: friendly, informed, generous. They've been very helpful to me as a fountain pen novice: cleaning old pens, adjusting new ones, giving advice. And of course the shop is unbelievably tempting: fabulous pens everywhere you look! It's way out in a quiet neighborhood (on the way there, you pass an ancient underwear store called "The Wizard of Bras") in an industrial mall with virtually no signage. But it's really worth the drive, and you'll enjoy meeting Fred. (And they have a periodic 25% off sale, which might be going on even now.)

[playpen]

Oh how I wish I could attend but sadly at that point I will be frozen into a snowdrift here in New York.....

[donwinn]

  Goodwhiskers said:

This is a great shop!

 

Fred Krinke and his crew (of two?) are in the Los Angeles area, on the south side of the city of Monrovia, near the city of El Monte, not far from the 210 and the 605 (farther from the 10).

 

Some of you who attend pen shows might know them already. Fred gave me the flyer for the L.A. Pen Show (coming up in February). They also put on events at the shop; they had just held a "Pen Fair" with some pen company reps.

 

The website

 

http://www.tmgp.com/cgi-bin/nph-tame/penshop/index.html

 

is informational only. Replies to e-mail are prompt.

 

The photograph on their website does not do justice to the luscious interior of the shop:

wall-to-wall fountain pens for sale (no exaggeration),

many models, both new stock and reconditioned/restored,

in many modern and old brands including Esterbrook and Eversharp.

 

They repair pens.

 

They sell ink stain removers (Amodex and Ink Nix)

and several brands of ink including Private Reserve and Noodler's.

 

I walked out with a bottle each of Noodler's Black, Namiki/Pilot Blue, and Amodex (with the brush in the cap). My joy from the recent recovery of my VP helped me maintain enough self-control not to buy any pens .

 

Your description gives me "pen envy". In DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) there is only one pen shop, Paradise Pens, in the Galleria Mall, where I suspect store rents are in the neighborhood of a million dollars a month per square inch. Very posh mall, and no wonder Paradise charges full retail. The wonder is that they don't have to mark up above MSRP to cover their rent.

 

Donnie

[tangent]

  donwinn said:

Fred Krinke and his crew (of two?) are in the Los Angeles area, on the south side of the city of Monrovia, near the city of El Monte, not far from the 210 and the 605 (farther from the 10).

...and if you exited the 605 and find yourself going past a race track, you turned left instead of right at the T. (So sez my leaky memory, anyway.)

 

I visited them when I had some downtime while visiting LA back in February, and it's the current high water mark in my limited experience of pen shops. It's rather small, but I've never seen more pens in a single room, and the "staff" (husband and wife, owners of the shop, I think) were extremely friendly. I'm not the sort to converse endlessly, but I arrived at 4pm and stayed there chatting with them up through closing at 5.

 

The only thing close in my limited experience is Paradise Pens in Las Vegas. As the other poster said above, it's *quite* retail, but selection and service were good. I bought my first "nice" pen there, and my only complaint I have is that in my ignorance, the shop keeper gave me exactly what I asked for instead of guiding me to what I really wanted.

 

Just so you can gauge where I'm coming from, the only other place I've been that you could call a pen shop is Sterling Art in Irvine, which I also visited while in LA. Sterling's selection of pens is pretty weak. The best thing I can say of them is that they carry Aurora inks. It's an excellent place to go for all kinds of other artstuff, though.

Edited December 5, 2007 by tangent

[MrBlue]

  tangent said:

Just so you can gauge where I'm coming from, the only other place I've been that you could call a pen shop is Sterling Art in Irvine, which I also visited while in LA. Sterling's selection of pens is pretty weak. The best thing I can say of them is that they carry Aurora inks. It's an excellent place to go for all kinds of other artstuff, though.

 

Sterling Art is close to my office. I have bought a few bottles of ink there, but their FP selection is o.k., but a bit limited. (A lot of Krones, for some reason.) They have just about every other writing implement known to man in that store though. My wife, a former elementary school teacher who really, really likes Sharpies and other markers, was open-mouthed agog at their selection. For Christmas, I'm thinking of putting together a "Big Box 'O Sharpies" for her and literally buying one of every type of Sharpie (big, small, thin, fat, every color, etc.) sold at Sterling -- probably several hundred pens in all. If anyone who works at Sterling reads this, they'll know me when I come in -- it's going to be the cashier's worst nightmare!

 

 

[apenlover]

I will be in LA from the 1st of August and all this positive comments are forcing me to visit this shop :-)

[sotto2]

Fred's shop is not by any means cavernous, but there's a nice historical/vintage display out front, and a smallish but pretty well stocked and comfortable show room. Advice is freely and generously given, including good places to eat and visit in Monrovia itself. Not to be missed, that's for sure.

[Deirdre]

It's a nice place. Pity I was broke when I visited a couple of years ago.

[jmdpenman]

I realize this thread is over a year old, but I just wanted to add a note of thanks to Fred Krinke at his Fountain Pen Shop in Monrovia, California, for staying open past their Saturday closing time just to help me out!

 

Fred adjusted the nib on my Waterman Expert (which had taken a nasty fall about a year ago). He also recommended a splendid Lamy Vista and swapped in an italic nib, which I picked up as a graduation gift.

 

So glad there are still "bricks and mortar" stores like these!

 

John D.

[georges zaslavsky]

glad to hear that a good shop like this is still in business

[bogiesan]

I'll be dropping by while visiting Riverside which seems to be about an hour away.

 

Pity they don't have their own website but try these:

 

http://www.stylophilesonline.com/archive/jan03/03vint.htm (The old black and white photo is backward. Those window signs would have been legible from the street, not inside the shop).

http://monrovia.patch.com/listings/the-fountain-pen-shop-inc#photo-1514929

[vpadgett]

I was there a few weeks ago and will be going again for the meeting of the Southern California Pen Collectors Club, which meets there 21st July at noon.

 

Fred tuned a scratchy Pelikan 140 and charged me 10 bucks. I was happy.

 

What a museum he has-- I asked him if he had an 1883 L. E. Waterman and he said no but that he had ... and pointed to all these vintage pens ... amazing.

[Marsilius]

I've said it before, but I love this place and the people. They have some great vintage stock and Fred knows a lot and has done some great work for me. Like going to the candy store and your Granddad's pen attic at the same time.

Best wishes,

Mars

[CSSD]

I'm going to give this older thread a bump .....

 

Fred has worked on most of my FP's to get the ink flow better adjusted to my preference. Always over-the-counter service, always speedy service, and always a more than reasonable cost.

 

Several years ago he rebuilt a WWII-era Waterman FP for a friend of mine. The pen had belonged to her father and she remembers her dad using the pen when she was a little kid. Fred worked the pen back to writing in as-new condition, and left the cosmetic scuffs for the sentimental value.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

[rwilsonedn]

This is my all-time favorite pen store, including the old Golden Gate Pen Shop (may it rest in peace.) The one time I was there, the folks let me compare three flex pens side by side. To my amazement, I ended up with the one I would have expected least: a Pilot Falcon. And they sold my wife a Noodlers Flex that was working perfectly. Given how fussy those things are, I have to assume they'd tuned it. Anyhow, wonderful people in a fascinating store.

ron

[Lbravo]

I am hoping this place is still open, as I will be in LA in March. Any idea? The web site given by the OP seems to be non functional.