I think you’ve basically described that entire stretch of 18th Street below Dolores… I used to lived on the corner of 18th/Valencia and would sometimes pop in for a morning bun & coffee or the odd croque monsieur when there wasn’t a stupid queue, which pretty much relegated visits to early weekdays or off-hours. I’d also occasionally call in a pick-up order for their walnut levain, which I happen to think is pretty good. That said, I don’t really think any bakery this side of the Atlantic is worthy of the hype or lines that Tartine attracts, but then the demographic you’ve hit on (instagram generation) seems programmed to that kind of hashtag food fetishization. No reason to knock the place itself, though I can see how it’s sort of unintentionally come to exemplify a lot of the negative/homogenizing/mono-cultural attributes of the neighborhood gentrification. I always thought it was kind of funny that people would stand in line 40 minutes when you could get better at Bi-Rite Market next door. Their morning buns are very good but I’m also not that into sweet/sugary things.
Yes, I didn’t really mean to pick on Tartine in particular but the annoying email made it a perfect emplar (and if the merger with Blue Bottle had gone through…_)
IIRC you are a Montreal transplant, and I find it interesting you mentioned walnut levain. I can’t get out of the Gare Centrale without a loaf of Premiere Moisson’s. How does Tartine’s stack up?
To be honest, I was a pretty strong loyalist to Le Fromentier on Laurier, which I considered the best boulangerie in the city; at least when I was still living there. Hof Kelsten seems to have taken that position now (their rye bread is truly out of orbit!) but Premiere Moisson was always more of a convenience choice for me.
Don’t get me wrong, PM’s baguettes are very good/excellent, but it’s also a national chain with something like 30 storefronts throughout the city (if memory serves, I believe it’s even sold in grocery stores too), so consistency could be an issue, depending on location, hours, staff, and other factors; it’s always hit and miss. (More often than not, in recent years, I found it was miss)
On the one hand, accessibility made PM an easy neighborhood option to fall back on if I wasn’t inclined to go ‘destination shopping’, since you’ll find an outpost at every marché (I lived a few short blocks from Atwater) and in just about ever neighborhood. On the other hand, we’re spoiled by French culture with so many excellent rustic style boulangeries in Montreal, from Fromentier to Mamie Clafoutis and Guillaume.
I couldn’t compare PM’s walnut levain to Tartine’s because it’s been years since I’ve had either, and I usually bought baguettes from PM. There are too many factors and considerations to take into account, but if I absolutely had to choose, I would almost certainly go with Tartine for consistency; and I’m generally not one to fawn over artisan bakery fads. I regularly pick up sourdough loaves from Swan since I live two blocks away on Van Ness. For my money, it’s still the best around!
Tartine is absolutely worth trying if you’re in the neighborhood and you call in advance to place a bread order (their walnut levain used to only be avail. after 4pm) in order to avoid unnecessary lines. I think it’s excellent, but I also no longer live in the Mission and don’t own a car, so I really have no reason to venture out there anymore for that purpose.
I believe I recall seeing PM breads at the big IGA on René-Lévesque, but never bought the levain anywhere but at the train station. There’s a “last chance” psychology of grabbing something as you leave town. (Could never fly out of Dorval without picking up two dozes St-V bagels when they sold them in the departure lounges.) Bakeries have never been a destination for me, though I can’t resist the impulse to buy something if I pass by Brioche Bakery or Acme. Fortunately I don’t have a sweet tooth.
Ha, I’m exactly the same way. The Gods of Fortune shined upon me on a recent visit, when I discovered that a Lester’s smoked meat satellite outpost had opened up in the international terminal. There was just no way that I could pass on one last ‘au revoir’ nosh of old fashioned with fries and black cherry for the long transcontinental haul back!
As I learned a post in the Bankrupt for Authenticity? thread, apparently you don’t need to be human to Live the Tartine Way:
"nonaggie: Chad Robertson of Tartine has talked about wanting to use robots to scale up production:
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/one-of-the-worlds-best-bakers-is-turning-to-robots-for-help
