Suit dry cleaning

[Pink22m]

After a slight unfortunate accident, I have decided I should probably have my suit trousers dry cleaned. The suit is a three piece. Must I get all three pieces dry cleaned together?

By the way, I plan on using a cleaners called Peninou, which has been operating since 1903 in the bay area. The establishment was recommended to me by Clay from Borrelli. Has anyone here used them before?

 

[DocHolliday]

Yes, always dry clean the entire suit. Keeps the color of the pieces consistent.

 

[drake]

I havn't heard good things about Peninou and if I am not mistaken they send out everything to be processed at some off site location.

I use Crystal Cleaning in San Mateo and have had excellent results from them.

Originally Posted by Pink22m

After a slight unfortunate accident, I have decided I should probably have my suit trousers dry cleaned. The suit is a three piece. Must I get all three pieces dry cleaned together?

By the way, I plan on using a cleaners called Peninou, which has been operating since 1903 in the bay area. The establishment was recommended to me by Clay from Borrelli. Has anyone here used them before?

 

[Pink22m]

I havn't heard good things about Peninou and if I am not mistaken they send out everything to be processed at some off site location.

I use Crystal Cleaning in San Mateo and have had excellent results from them.

What types of things have you heard about Peninou? According to their card, they are an eco friendly cleaner, and given their locations (Menlo Park, Los Gatos, Pacific Heights) I would imagine that they are used to cleaning high end garments.

I have heard that Crystal Springs is supposed to be good too.

 

[drake]

Well for one they won't entertain any type of special request. For the price they charge (something like $40 for a suit) they damn well better do whatever I ask, but try asking them to press the roll of your jacket differently and they will tell you no (because they don't do it in house, it's done offsite at some processing plant).

I've also heard of people getting their garments back damaged, which again, for the price you pay is completely unacceptable.

Originally Posted by Pink22m

What types of things have you heard about Peninou? According to their card, they are an eco friendly cleaner, and given their locations (Menlo Park, Los Gatos, Pacific Heights) I would imagine that they are used to cleaning high end garments.

I have heard that Crystal Springs is supposed to be good too.

 

[Will]

I use them weekly and wish I knew an alternative. Despite their promotion of themselves as one of the world's best dry cleaners, they do not understand men's clothing.

My French cuffs come back wrinkled. They won't press anything without dry cleaning it. They will hand press jacket fronts but not trousers. They return jackets with all the buttons buttoned, including the ones that are supposed never to be buttoned. Etc.

Unfortunately, the other places I've tried in San Francisco are worse. On the positive side, Peninou hasn't damaged anything yet. Lost yes, but not damaged.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by Will

I use them weekly and wish I knew an alternative. Despite their promotion of themselves as one of the world's best dry cleaners, they do not understand men's clothing.

My French cuffs come back wrinkled. They won't press anything without dry cleaning it. They will hand press jacket fronts but not trousers. They return jackets with all the buttons buttoned, including the ones that are supposed never to be buttoned. Etc.

Unfortunately, the other places I've tried in San Francisco are worse. On the positive side, Peninou hasn't damaged anything yet. Lost yes, but not damaged.
Like Will said, Peninou is a pretty awful place, but they are the best in the city. I never clean anything there as I have trained my wife to do my ironing. She uses them all of the time and is usually mildly upset. Another annoyance is that they refuse to launder linen, so make sure that you pull the tags off of any linen shirts and tell them they are cotton.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by drake

Well for one they won't entertain any type of special request. For the price they charge (something like $40 for a suit) they damn well better do whatever I ask, but try asking them to press the roll of your jacket differently and they will tell you no (because they don't do it in house, it's done offsite at some processing plant).

I've also heard of people getting their garments back damaged, which again, for the price you pay is completely unacceptable.
Well, that is not really fair as they have their own off site processing plant where they send the stuff from all four locations. When people make that complaint, it is generally abou the cleaners that use a central processor that does the cleaning for all sorts of different companies. Peninou is not one of those.

 

[drake]

If you read my posts you will know I never said it wasn't their own off site plant. One of the problems with a off site plant is because it's not done on-site they process everything the exact same way and provide no personal attention to your clothing, which like I said, is completely unacceptable at their price. The other problems, as Will said, they don't do press only and have lost his clothing which is ridiculous for their price range/claims and most of these problems can be traced to the fact that they gather everything and truck it off to their processing plant then truck it back. It's much harder to loser something if it never leaves your shop and press only is no problem. The only thing Peninou has going for it is it's pretentious name and it's idiot client base that thinks because they pay insane prices for dry cleaning they are actually getting good service when they are barley above the level of any of the million random strip mall dry cleaners.

Originally Posted by iammatt

Well, that is not really fair as they have their own off site processing plant where they send the stuff from all four locations. When people make that complaint, it is generally abou the cleaners that use a central processor that does the cleaning for all sorts of different companies. Peninou is not one of those.

 

[Doc Martin]

Originally Posted by iammatt

I never clean anything there as I have trained my wife to do my ironing...

Bravo! I still haven't gotten to the point where I can trust my wife with the ironing.

 

[southgate house]

have any of you tried buchanan cleaners (buchanan and california)? it was recommended to me by a sales woman downtown who i find is typically well informed (she worked as comme de carcons and now works at marc jacobs on maiden lane -- not the easiest clothing to clean). i beleive they do all the washing on site and their prices are not like peninou's. i haven't had a suit cleaned there yet but they do a fine job with my pants.

 

[Pink22m]

Thanks for the comments guys. I guess I might end up trying Crystal Springs Cleaners instead. I have heard they are quite good.