As the ROW DTLA on the edge of the Arts District of Los Angeles evolves from a string of abandoned 1920’s warehouses into a fully-fledged cultural destination, The Manufactory has planted a major multipurpose culinary flagship on the block.
This marks the first collaboration by the James Beard Awarding winning trio of acclaimed chefs Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson of San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery and Phoenix’s Pizzeria Bianco by Chris Bianco.
The 40,000 sq ft industrial space was designed by Studio BBA and holds a massive on-site bakery, Tartine Bianco (all-day seasonal café and bar), plus a coffee roastery and lab. The next phase will reveal the more formal Alameda Supper Club along with an additional alfresco bar.
Currently, the bakery is popping-out approximately 4,250 loaves and 6,300 pieces of viennoiserie daily which is equivalent to 3,700 kg of flour per day. Pedestrian traffic can get a peek of the process through the floor-to-ceiling corner windows during peak hours.
Led by Bonnie Bridges, Studio BBA was tapped to create the interiors which operate as an ecosystem with shared resources and concerted creative energy. The concept has harnessed large scale operational state of the art machines and technology, such as automated moving sacks of flour, mechanical mixers and portable mixing bowls on wheels, without losing touch with the artisanal process. According to Robertson, ‘Tradition should inform the innovation not constrain it. Innovation should complement the tradition, not replace it.’
To that end, each loaf of the famed country bread is stretched and shaped by hand, then baked with specially milled flour to produce the dark mahogany oval loaf with a heavily grooved ridge that rises out of the middle. The hallmark tartines, beloved croissants and cinnamon morning buns are also being churned out a rapid pace to keep up with demand.
The marketplace serves as a hub for buying pastries, charcuterie and flatbreads but also everything from bright yellow and pale blue cans of Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes to cookbooks and custom designed ceramics, such as the ‘lemon tart’ series by Knotwork LA. Patterns are all created by a unique process of coloured white porcelain and stoneware inlaid into large slabs of clay. You can also take home about 16 global wines or the imported and house roasted Coffee Manufactory beans in six blends – which just won the Sprudgie Award for Best Design Packaging.
The brand is planning more expansion in LA, reaching out to Santa Monica, Hollywood and Silver Lake with satellite cafés so the whole city can share in the carb-fuelled bliss. §
