The Manufactory (Tartine Bianco, Alameda Supper Club, The Market) - ROW DTLA

Look at the photos of the “flatbreads” and tell me that’s not pizza.

I think all flatbreads are pizza. I wrongly assumed when Chris Bianco was part of Manufactory we would have this type of pizza. This is what I was looking forward to.

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I bet this is how Radiohead felt when they released “Kid A”.

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I went to a Pearl Jam concert in Seattle a few years after they released the album Backspacer. I think it was 2009. It had been a few years since they had a concert in Seattle. We were in the old Key Arena. All of us were psyched to see Pearl Jam performing at home. They end up playing almost every song off the new album. They played 4-5 songs off Vs and Ten. I don’t remember much as I’ve tried to block this memory from my brain.

Anyway the morale of the story is play the hits. People aren’t coming to your concert to hear the new album. Make the damn pizza the people want.

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Have you seen “Chef”? This latest turn reminds me of that movie.

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Was that the one where John Favreau was the chef?

Yeah! Dance monkey! Play Alive! Make muh pizza!

/s

We live in an ephemeral world. The lesson is enjoy the moment because it will pass in a flash.

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yep!

R: Look, if you bought Stones tickets and Jagger didn’t play ‘Satisfaction’, how would you feel? Would you be happy?
C: No.
R: No! You’d burn the place to the fucking ground. Your menu works. People love it.
Carl, do what you want tonight. OK? You’re the chef. You know what I think? I think you should play your hits.

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As noted in the other Tartine Manufactory topic, Bianco stopped making pizza ten years ago, for health reasons. Since then he’s opened five more restaurants, only one of which is a pizzeria.

Fair enough but why couldn’t one of his pizza chefs do pizza here?

Let me ask everyone a question here, why the hell would I want to eat Chris Bianco’s food? I’m sure he’s a good chef but there are lots of great chefs in LA who are also vying for your hard earned dollars.

Why would I risk trying some more modern Cal-Med-Talian typical BS we see on all the menus when I could go somewhere that at least has a refreshing new concept such as Bavel or Nightshade?

Tartine Bianco is asking you as a consumer to piggyback off the pedigree from his pizza to try his non-pizza food. I’m not going to sacrifice my dollars to try it out, so you are welcomed to but I have limited funds and time as do many people here.

Maybe his reputation in Arizona is more than pizza but not out here. Using Michael Jordan as a metaphor, maybe he wasn’t so bad at baseball but I’m not paying to watching him play baseball I wanna see him play basketball.

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Wow… You read my mind. A different musician came to mind, but I thought the same thing reading the disappointment expressed by folks who love and want the pizza. I thought “this is the equivalent of paying for a concert and the douche-y rock star only plays his new music and is offended that the audience is dissatisfied”.

P.S. I love Pearl Jam’s music, but as people they’ve always been that way. :roll_eyes:

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Using bands as a metaphor, lots of bands have side projects. Fans go to see side projects. Sometimes those side projects are actually good.

But there’s always those haters that will proclaim the side project sucks because it doesn’t sound like the original band…

Admittedly, most of those side projects do suck balls and are just creative outlets. Maybe this truly is the corrrct metaphor.

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I don’t get it. You want pizza, they don’t have it. So don’t go, but everyone should save themselves the indignation.
Bianco can do whatever the hell he wants to do and the Tartine backers can give him whatever venue they choose to offer him because Chris Bianco owes neither Los Angeles nor you anything.
Every artist, artisan, or worker has the freedom to do what they like and to go broke trying it. Bianco certainly has the right to run a restaurant that isn’t saturated with flour dust that’s killing him.
I get it. I’m bummed I can’t get a Bianco pizza real easy like I was hoping. I’m bummed the menu concept is steeped in traditions that are already oversaturating the market.
But Bianco can open a diner if he wants.

@Ns1 the band analogy is pretty fucking perfect. The only difference is that when you go to a concert, you can usually have listened to the new album first to see if you want to hear it live. But otherwise, pretty much the same thing.

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Well I’m not hoping they fail at this location which they’ve spent so much money on but if they don’t have pizza then I probably won’t go. Unfortunately maybe a lot of people won’t go.

Also it may have his name on it but he could have just had a senior sous chef do it no? Maybe this side project will be good but it may only attract the hardcore fans at first who are willing to try it and sing its praises before the rest of us are convinced it’s worth checking out but at Tartine’s overall current state I have no interest in it. I rather support other local bakers (like Bub’s) and local coffee (like so many) and other local chefs before I go to Tartine for whatever generic California-Mediterranean-Italian with some global influenced inspired menu they are pushing.

Yes to everything you said. I’m not compelled by anything at Tartine other than their bread loaves. I still rate Tartine at the tops so I do hope that the LA outpost is putting out bread as good as the mothership. I’m also not driving to Tartine, passing half a dozen excellent local bakeries, just for a loaf. Strictly an already in the area thing.

Look, I’m with you. I’m not buying what Tartine is selllng. That said, I want Bianco to have an opportunity to break free of the typecasting. I’m rooting for him. From afar.

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I mostly agree with this. I will say though that when you look back at the press releases about this, they were very careful to emphasize Bianco’s pizza notoriety to maximize the press about what was coming to LA, while not promising anything specific. I think fair minds could argue they were engaged in gamesmanship on this front.

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Very strong point.

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Yes, but you have to have agreed to go see the side project. We’re talking about going to see the band in it’s original form and they refuse to play the songs that fans love and paid to hear. Now admittedly Tartine Bianco seems to be the equivalent of a side project. But as @Haeldaur points out “they were very careful to emphasize Bianco’s pizza notoriety to maximize the press about what was coming to LA, while not promising anything specific.” :smirk: Bait & switchy?

No. You are not going to Pizzeria Bianco, so you are not going to see the original band. It’s pretty clear we’re going to see a supergroup and praying for the best.

Hell the menu is online so you even know they’re not going to play Satisfaction.

Can I request Freebird? With more cowbell?

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