Considering I was there in the summer of 2009 with my friend in AZ who happens to be a good friend of Chris and saw Chris baking every pie coming out, I would say your sources aren’t quite right. Maybe he stepped away towards the end of 2009, but “over a decade” as I said is a bit of an exaggeration.
It’s disappointing there’s no pizza, but I understand how chefs don’t want to feel trapped and expected to keep doing their one famous trick at every new venture they try.
At this moment the venture is difficult to grasp. If you have a restaurant coming, and you have the bakery/bar/market, what’s the point of Tartine Bianco, or then what’s the point of the restaurant, or the bar? There’s too much going on, yet nothing seems more elevated than what you would find at a very good Australian-style cafe, from what I’m reading from this thread. Minus the third wave coffee.
BTW, I had the coconut cream tart at the original Tartine and felt the hard chocolate base didn’t add much except another layer of hardness. I probably wouldn’t order it again, but too me, excluding it is an improvement. I also felt that way about the chocolate-base in Suzanne Goin’s lemon tart. A chocolate ganache with semi-soft bite would have been my preference.
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Also I don’t understand their push to get into roasting coffee considering how much great coffee there already is in LA. Considering we have Dulce, PCP, and the upcoming Go Get Em Tiger I don’t expect Tartine’s coffee sales to be crazy. I assume they want to make their money in coffee wholesale but that’s already a crowded market.
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Sounds to me like they were drinking too much of their own Tartine brand kool-aid, and underestimating the sophistication of the LA dining landscape. NorCal arrogance?
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I have been pretty impressed with pcp coffee I’m going to have to give the food a shot
It appears that one of their mentored bakers, took what she learned and opened up a small bakery in Birdrock (San Diego). It’s called Wayfarer, and has a distinctive style, setting it apart from some of our other top tier bakeries. Her croissants and artisan bread loaves are cooked to the end of over. The croissants are super crispy, buttery, and the almond version is heavenly. The olive loaf is huge with a great crust–thankfully they sell it by the half. I’d be interested if anyone has tried both the original, the LA iterations and our Wayfarer.
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So I went today. Bottom line: the restaurant is still a little bit of a shit show, but the bread is great. Had an olive loaf that was, in my view, better than any bread I’ve ever had at Gjusta. Basically you should be going to the market, getting bread, pastries, sandwiches, pizza, and leaving the restaurant experience to people who want to overpay for eggs.
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I agree with the original comment suggesting that Tartine SF is nothing special, so I wouldn’t expect this new restaurant to be anything special. Their croissants are average.
Pizzeria Bianco, on the other hand, is legit, but the new restaurant doesn’t have pizzas, so…
Do you find yourself burning up sometimes with your hot takes
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Why do people keep insisting on judging Tartine on their croissants? I mean, I think nearly everything Tartine puts out is at least very good, but the heart and soul of Tartine is their bread. That bread is legend.
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And the morning buns.
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Sadly, the morning bun we tried was pretty bad here at Tartine L.A. 
I’m willing to give it another try in a few months; hopefully it gets better.
Yeah, Tartine’s bread, which is to say Chad Robertson’s bread, is as good as it gets.
I’ve had some of Tartine’s pastries, which is to say Elisabeth Prueitt’s pastries, but they were apparently not memorable.
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On Dave Chang’s podcast with Robertson and Bianco, Chris Bianco mentioned on two occasions that he is definitely going to open up a stand alone pizzeria Bianco in LA at some point. Not sure what that means or when.
tartine bread now at wholefoods around LA. overall net plus for bread lovers, but will this result in less foot traffic to the manufactory?
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So Tartine in LA doesn’t have the croque monsieur, right? I know they do other tartines but the croque was really the one indispensable thing to me at the SF location and it kind of bums me out if they didn’t carry it over.
I haven’t seen it on the menus in any of our visits so far.
Dinner service donzo.
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Makes sense to me. That weird complex was almost totally deserted when I was there around 6 on a weeknight.