LOS ANGELES — Chad Robertson and wife Elizabeth Prueitt have earned a cult following for their San Francisco bakery's distinctive sourdough bread, chocolate-filled croissants and pastries. Now, after merging Tartine with the equally cultish Blue Bottle Coffee Company, they are expanding in the U.S. and internationally.
But how to scale up a niche favorite while not losing quality? That's the question Robertson has tried to answer for two years as he has considered ways to increase production without compromising his bread's rich, naturally leavened flavor.
After the merger, Tartine will begin serving breads and pastries at Blue Bottle cafes and two of the bakery's new locations will be at shared spaces with the coffee company. His quest has taken him from California to Germany, where he has spent time studying how successful large-scale bakeries are run.
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