San Francisco’s popular Tartine Bakery announced today that it will be opening a casual café and bakery inside the Graduate Berkeley hotel. A press release from Tartine says it will open this summer.
Since wife-husband team Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson first opened their neighborhood bakery-café in San Francisco’s Mission district in 2002, Tartine has been a popular mainstay in the Bay Area. For years, San Franciscans stood in lines that wrapped around the original corner location on Guerrero at 18th streets for the bakery’s morning buns, cakes, pies, sandwiches. (Alice Waters is a fan; The New York Times reported she used to buy her birthday cakes from the bakery.) Most popular, though, are Tartine’s hearty, rustic whole grain country loaves, made with locally milled flours and baked fresh daily in a wood-fired brick oven.
Over the years, Tartine’s reputation led to worldwide acclaim, leading it to expand from a quaint neighborhood spot to a global brand. The founding couple published several cookbooks and was awarded a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2008. In 2016, Tartine opened its second S.F. location, Tartine Manufactory, a 5,000-square-foot bread factory in 2016. Around the same time, it rolled out its own coffee roastery, Coffee Manufactory, with a headquarters in Oakland’s Jack London Square. There followed a location in Los Angeles called The Manufactory; an outpost in SFO; and three locations in Seoul, Korea.
The Berkeley café will be Tartine’s first foray into the East Bay, although it’s already dabbled at this location. In April 2018, when chef Chris Kronner took over Henry’s at the Graduate, Tartine provided all the breads. When it opens this summer, Tartine will join Henry’s as a second place to dine at The Graduate, offering breakfast and lunch service, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Although the menu has yet to be announced, the press release hints that it will offer a selection of tempting pastries (morning buns, croissants, tea cakes, cookies, more), breads, sandwiches and salads, along with Coffee Manufactory coffees, teas and specialty sodas.
San Francisco’s Studio BBA, which designed The Manufactory in Los Angeles and Tartine’s newest Nine Avenue San Francisco location, will transform an exterior sunroom patio of the historic 1928 hotel to create the new Tartine Bakery location. The space, which has its own street entrance, was last used as a florist shop. Studio BBA will keep the existing multi-paned windows, but add interior touches in wood, refined zinc, custom steel and glass to bring it up to date. The café’s lounge seating will only be accessible through the hotel’s lobby, but a window will create a visual portal between the café and lounge.
Stay tuned on Nosh for an opening date and more details.
