Tatte Bakery: A Review
Any of you Bostoners remember Cafe Vanille? I still can’t believe they closed. There croissants were great! I never got anything else, other than water. But they were always busy, and had 2 locations! And the ew tenant, is the same kind of thing, a bakery. I never heard of Tatte until they moved in on Charles. Over the years, I’ve been a few times. The croissants are decent but I got the impression they used shitty ingredients. Hood milk and Domino sugar could be spotted behind the counter. So I never really went unless someone else wanted to. I don’t get it, the place looks nice, is in a great area and has strong branding. Why not use better ingredients?
I found myself there for breakfast with a friend the other day, and ordered my first entree. I thought I’d give it a shot. Shakshuka sounded good, and I’d never had it before. It’s pretty much poached eggs in tomato sauce. It tasted great. But I’m still skeptical about the ingredients. It was served with Challah that looked like hydrogenated-oil filled Texas toast. I’m just imagining someone in the kitchen making this with eggs from paper-thin shells. Am I being too critical?
The place isn’t cheap, it’s popular and they taught themselves as “upscale,” why aren’t they providingg better quality food? And here’s the kicker, Tatte’s majority shareholder is Panera!
“Panera Bread has made an investment in Tatte Bakery & Cafe, a five-unit, upscale bakery-café concept offering breakfast and lunch in Boston, Cambridge and Brookline, Massachusetts. Tatte appeals to high-end consumers with its artisanal pastries, homemade breads, salads and sandwiches. We believe that this bakery-cafe concept has unique growth potential in markets that are complementary to Panera and want to help support that growth. Tatte will continue to operate as an independent company under its founder’s leadership, with access to select Panera resources.”
Ron, I urge you to give taste access to your better quality distributors! Ron Shaich is a Boston local. He’s the founder of Au Bon Pain and Panera, and currently the CEO of Panera Breads. He’s into food. He’s behind Panera improving the quality of their food.