Revisiting Tartine Bakery

It has been too long since I have been back to Tartine Bakery. In 2002, when the place first opened, I lived only a few short minutes away and considered that stretch of real estate a home away from home. Entire weekends where spent roving from Tartine, to the original Slanted Door, Delfina, and Bi-Rite.

Now that I live in Los Angeles, the opportunities to enjoy Tartine's pastries, bread and desserts have come few and far between. Sure, the lines are long and product of equivalent quality can be found much closer to home. You generally have to make snap decisions on what to order, you bus your own tables, you fight for seats at a communal table - things many people find troublesome - but these aspects all lend character to what I remember about my time enjoying the bakery's first year in business. So, when I found out that I would be in San Francisco for Slow Food Nation I made sure I had time to get over to Tartine to relive a few memories.

I have actually been thinking about the bakery a lot recently; ever since the James Beard Foundation announced that owners Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson were given the Outstanding Pastry Chef Award this past June. They had been nominated in 2006 for the prize, but they did not receive the much deserved award until now.


For what I have always enjoyed about the bakery, Tartine is still going strong and my favorites still hit the spot (and, yes, the lines are as long as ever - see photo below). Their pastries are made with organic flour, sugar and local eggs. They generally use organic produce and many of there meats come from hormone free/humane producers like Niman Ranch. Coffee is organic Mr. Espresso and all dairy for the coffee bar is organic from Straus Family Creamery in Marin County. They have a few standards that are always available, but many of breakfast pastries, cakes and tarts vary according to season, availability of produce, and the whims of the Chefs.

I have always been partial to Tartine's croque monsieur. Their version of the classic open face sandwich is made with Robertson's phenomenal country bread, bechamel, gruyere, thyme and pepper. You have a choice of either smoked Niman Ranch ham, Cowgirl Creamery fromage blanc, or shitake mushrooms and seasonal vegetables but I always go for the ham.

There is something about the country bread that Robertson bakes at Tartine that makes this sandwich for me. The almost charred crust works in perfect contrast to the rich creamy bechamel-laden center. The ham and gruyere both add a nice touch of saltiness and heft that rounds out the sandwich. Perfect for both a foggy Sunday morning or a sunny weekday lunch and a pretty good deal for $9.00.

As for the pastries, the ham and cheese croissant reigns supreme. But, with the croque monsieur on the way, I was looking for something a little sweeter. I didn't think I would be able to finish one of their massive bowls of house-made brioche bread pudding so I starting looking in the pastry case. I almost went for the almond croissant (on the menu as a Fragipane croissant with brandy and almonds), but I ended up ordering the "double" pain au chocolat made with Valrhona chocolate.

Now, pain au chocolat isn't ever really as good as I expect it to be. I think my ideal is an impossible standard; an inordinate amount of chocolate coupled with the flaky butteriness of plain croissant. But this was pretty good. It had twice the chocolate as I have ever seen in any pain au chocolat (hence the "double") and it was still nice and flaky. I wasn't disappointed.

For a short moment in time at Tartine this past Labor Day, I was lost in a discussion with friends, enjoying my croque monsieur, wholly unaware that I no longer lived just a few blocks away. Not a bad way to spend a morning.