West Adams Tartine is Open! (drool worthy pastry pics included)

RestaurantsLos AngelesCity GuideReviewBakerySweetsPastries

Nov 16

Tartine bread — *Tartine’s bread shelf. Image by Linh Da Tran*

Tartine is newly opened and humming on the main West Adams food drag! Its eighth California location officially opened on Monday, November 15th. According to their Instagram stories, lines were out the door (surprise-surprise!).

As a neighbor, I can now certifiable say West Adams is the next Culver City (this makes happy)! A bakery with clout and the reputation to back it :) Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt specialize in rustic breads, after learning from abroad. Did you know Tartine has six locations in Seoul? Time to buy a plane ticket and engage in food tourism!

Their cookbooks have won awards, and they don’t seem shy about sharing their recipes and how-tos! My sister worships their bread technique, striving to re-create her own Tartine bread moments! So it is not surprise when I heard Tartine was coming, my heart skipped a beat :)

Tartine west adams — *Image by Linh Da Tran*

Menu (pictured below) is limited - mainly grab and go breads and pastries (and much fewer options compared to their Santa Monica location). Good for a light meal; their All Day menu includes quiche, granola, a salad and several sandwich options.

On their grab and go shelf are whole and half loaves of bread including country, multi-grain, buttermilk styles, and a swag shelf for purchase (I was particularly eyeing their embroidered “Tartine” baseball cap!).

**The Morning Bun**

According to Chic Eats, their buns are made with generous portions of flour, butter, orange zest, cinnamon and yes lots of SUGAR!!
It’s basically an elevated cinnabun :)Twenty seconds warmed in the microwave and viola, some ooey carmel-y moments (did I spy nuts?) in between their doughy layers. Highly recommend!

**Frangipane croissant**
(almond croissant)

Frangipane is an almond filling, similar to almondine but European and thus fancier! They birthed a perfect croissant, perfectly dissect it, layered in almond/sugar/butter, and bake it again with sugar/butter/almond slivers on top. Then did a final powered sugar dusting!
Those chewy almond slivers add the perfect crunch — sugar tooth fulfilled! The croissant burst apart when I bit into it (can you say perfection?). Their dough lamination is the best I’ve had (I’m not a chef, I just eat a lot). I preferred this one over the morning bun, but only because I love almonds , sugar and that crunch :).

Not pictured - I ordered a mushroom quiche ($8). If I had to pick between the above sweet pastries versus the quiche, I’d pick the pastries/bread any day! The quiche was perfection! Eggs were fluffy, light - I’m pretty sure they poured in generous cream and fat! The mushrooms were perfectly salted. The crust helped add the right body and crunch. HOWEVER, it did not fill me up and it was not unique enough. It was a smaller than average sized quiche. I’ve had a lot of good quiches in my day and their quiche is not so difference (but their crust was very crunchy, dry and crisp, so that was unique)! Hence, I recommend ordering what they are worshipped for, their incredible baked goods :) as evidenced by their superb sweets and yeasty breads!

As I was waiting in line, the kitchen brought out, what looked like a custard-y tart (drooling)! Alas, I was commuting via bicycle and did not want to unceremoniously cram it into my backpack — hence I ordered more travel-friendly foods. sigh Next time!

For seating, they have ~2 large, casual picnic tables with umbrellas and 4 benches (I can imagine it getting very hot on a summer day). On this particular winter day, it was foggy and cool - so it was pleasant to sit there. This is definitely more of a grab and go, or meet a friend and drink coffee, eat pastry kinda-place. I can imagine locals who rise early, lazily reading their paper, drink coffee, and enjoy their daily flour/butter fix. Seating is an afterthought. They have, what appears to be a large cook/prep kitchen in the back (off limits to customers) - so I imagine they took-up the space mainly to cook and added on a small customer-facing front as secondary priority :). So don’t plan no fancy lunches there!

The wait: I arrived shortly after they opened at 8a on a Tuesday. While initially, I was the only one, within minutes, the line was 7 person deep (it moved fast, but damn they are popular)! I can imagine it getting busy during peak times — will that new store glow ever wear off?

Perhaps the most important question - did they have coffee? YES! It is the perfect place to grab coffee and sweets. Avoid peak times if you don’t want to wait in line. But because it is mostly a grab and go, I expect the lines to move fast.

Overall, huge win! I will visit often to fulfill all my sweet cravings, coffee and meeting friends. One day hope to visit their more fleshed out Santa Monica Tartine location :)