Eat Local: Tartine Manufactory, San Francisco, CA, USA

The Tartine Manufactory is the sprawling concept husband-and-wife founder Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt have wanted to create since opening their wildly popular but cramped Tartine Bakery and Cafe 15 years ago

 
Our visit to the Heath Building in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA, included a delicious luncheon at the recently opened extension of the renowned Tartine Bakery & Café – Tartine manufactory. “Pastry chef Elisabeth Prueitt and her husband, renowned baker Chad Robertson, are the co-owners of Tartine Bakery and Bar Tartine in San Francisco. They both trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Elisabeth and Chad traveled, trained, and cooked in France and upon their return, opened Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes Station, California. Using a wood fired brick oven, they baked bread and created rustic, elegant pastries using many of the techniques they had learned abroad. Chad’s bread garnered the attention of Alain Ducasse, who wrote about the couple in his book, Harvesting Excellence. After 6 years of baking in the countryside, they relocated to San Francisco to open Tartine Bakery in 2002. Elisabeth was named Pastry Chef of the Year in San Francisco Magazine. Tartine Bakery is continually rated in the Zagat Survey as Best Bakery and Best Breakfast in San Francisco. Elisabeth and Chad were nominated for James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chefs in 2006 and 2007, and won the award in 2008.
 

Loaves of Tartine Bakery bread cooling before going on sale at Tartine Manufactory

Preparing dough for baking for the delicious bread at Tartine Manufactory

Finished bread loaves at Tartine Manufactory

The dining room at Tartine Manufactory is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner; we visited for a superb luncheon (our dishes follow…)

 
“After years of development, the sequel to San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery will finally open its doors this week. At 555 Alabama Street, Tartine Manufactory is not far from the original Guerrero St. location, but the 5,000-square-foot space is miles away in manifestation. With a 100-seat restaurant, ice cream shop, espresso bar and bakery, the Manufactory is the sprawling concept husband-and-wife founder Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt have wanted to create since opening their wildly popular but cramped bakery and cafe 15 years ago.  ‘We’ve been completely maxed out and overflowing at the bakery for 10 or 12 years now,’ Robertson said.  The Manufactory is located in the converted laundry factory that Sausalito-based Heath Ceramics transformed into a second factory and showroom in 2012. Since then, Heath founders Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey have been searching for the right tenant to fill the large, light-filled space next door.” – San Francisco Business Times
 

Our starter was two open face sandwiches (“tartines”, fancy French open-faced sandwiches topped with spreadable ingredients) – smoked trout and avocado

Next was a crispy Maryland softshell crab sandwich with aioli nero, fennel, spring onion, upland cress on a grilled brioche bun

Lemon cucumber salad with tahini, blackberry, bronze fennel, pickled rhubarb (vegetarian)

BBQ lamb sandwich with harissa, breakfast radish, cucumber & yogurt on a grilled brioche bun

A desert of blueberries atop a delicious mousse

An excellent cappuccino at Tartine Manufactory

Almond brioche topped with mascarpone and fresh plum slices