Blog: Bianco and Tartine’s Massive Manufactory Brings Coffee, Bread, and Pizza to LA Next Month

The smell of baking bread is starting to waft out of the many entrances of the Manufactory, the sprawling Downtown complex being brought to life by the Tartine team and Chris Bianco. The majorly anticipated property takes up basically an entire ground floor of one building at The Row, and will offer everything from pizzas by way of Bianco (and Tartine’s Chad Robertson) to dinner from Robertson (alongside Bianco). It’s all very collaborative, and very, very big.

The collaborative element is the crux of a new story out over at Food & Wine that details a lot of what to expect from Manufactory, from the sheer square footage to the buffalo milk soft serve ice cream. Here are the big things now coming further into focus:

Only one dinner to start: Because of the size and scope of the Manufactory as a whole, things will come together over time. The first piece to open is Tartine Bianco, the (eventual) all day cafe on the property, facing out towards Paramount Coffee Project, Pikunico, and — in the distance — Smorgasburg. The tall, sunny room offers a rather wide bar and behemoth open kitchen, with seating for over 100 diners at a clip. That includes over 40 seats outside, plus some first-come communal tables and bar seats. Tartine Bianco will open for dinner to begin, likely sometime in mid-January, with breakfast and lunch (both also reservable) in the weeks that follow.

Farley Elliott

A marketplace and more: Just past Tartine Bianco (though it’s mostly all one long, large space) is the marketplace, a home for dry goods and takeaway items. The entire subterranean bottom floor of the Manufactory is a warren of prep kitchens and storage and coffee roasting, so there’s plenty of space to craft things like soups, sandwiches, and other takeaway meals for the market. That’s also where some of that well-known buffalo milk soft serve ice cream will be sold, alongside pastries and full bread loaves. Bianco and Robertson have also collaborated on a square-style pizza option, though they’re keen to note that it’s not Detroit, Sicilian, or really any other current style that exists on the market. This will be unique to Los Angeles.

Taylor Parsons, who is overseeing the wine for the entire property, will have an off-site license to sell bottles to go, and a small bar inside the market will pour beer and wine. There’s a separate walk-up window area to the back as well, for earlier morning pastries, coffee, and daytime coffee.

The Supper Club side: At least some of the other half of the long building, the side that faces out towards Alameda, is devoted to Alameda Supper Club, a more refined dinner-only experience. There’s a private dining room, mature shade trees growing outside, and an open-air bar doing outdoor cocktails by way of Julian Cox.

Ancillary projects: As the Food & Wine piece notes, this won’t be the only Tartine (or possibly Bianco) project to open in Los Angeles. Beyond the standalone Tartine cafe already operating up on Sunset Boulevard, reps say there are three more cafes planned in Silver Lake, Santa Monica, and Hollywood. Those should arrive sometime in 2019. Meanwhile, a planned brewery project with a team out of New York City is now dead, leaving an open space at the far end of the Row building that Manufactory occupies. Don’t worry, someone will take it eventually.

Manufactory

And the timing: Reps for the Manufactory are hesitant to give an opening date for anything, considering the build-out the property has already undergone. But permitting is in its final stages, and the bakery side is already testing loaves. Assuming no setbacks, look for Tartine Bianco to open in mid-January, with expanding hours and the rest of the complex arriving in a slow roll from there over the proceeding five or six weeks. After that it’s full speed ahead on the Manufactory ship, a 40,000 square foot, 300-person behemoth that’s sure to dramatically alter the Downtown dining landscape.

The Manufactory. 757 Alameda, Los Angeles, CA.