After waiting, watching — and, let’s face it, craving — Marin County was thrilled to learn of Tartine’s long awaited opening in Mill Valley. Tartine, the beloved Marin-founded bakery and café, opened its latest location on Wednesday, August 19 in Mill Valley’s Strawberry Village. The socials started bubbling with excitement, and then came the lines.
From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, Tartine Mill Valley offers Marin residents an all-day café experience for breakfast, lunch, and in between, with the bakery’s signature country loaves and specialty breads, morning buns, croissants, seasonal pastries, cakes, cookies, sandwiches, salads, tartines and coffee bar.
Tartine has expanded to become not only a California-wide but international brand, with branches in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seoul. “Opening our first location in Marin has long been a goal,” said Tartine CEO Dar Vasseghi. “Strawberry Village is an ideal home for us — a neighborhood gathering place with a strong sense of community. People have been asking us for this for a long time, and we’re excited to deliver on that demand.”
Photos by Nicola Parisi, courtesy of Tartine
If you’re new to Tartine, here are some of the classic hits: Breakfast highlights include the soft scramble tartine (country bread, cage-free eggs, labneh, white cheddar, smoked trout roe, horseradish) as well as classics like yogurt & house-made granola, omelette with herbs and cheddar, and a breakfast sandwich on a sweet potato bun. Lunch specialties range from salads that showcase the best local produce (chopped summer corn salad, green goddess salad with little gems and stonefruit) to perfectly composed sandwiches (BLT, tuna, turkey club, ham & gruyére). The double smash burger is a delicious indulgence of grass-fed beef patties and american cheese dressed up with celery remoulade and fennel confit.
It All Started in West Marin
From a 2016 Marin Magazine article written by Ian A. Stewart, Look Inside Tomales Bay’s Craft Bakeries, the author describes West Marin as “artisan bread ground zero” when he interviewed Tartine founder Chad Robertson. Stewart wrote, “Robertson — about as close as you’ll get to a rock star in the baking world — is thinking about the past. About the town of Marshall, and the Victorian house on Ranch S2 where he and dozens of other aspiring bread makers flocked to learn about old-world baking techniques and the farm-to-table sensibility.
“It was a very specific kind of foodie utopia,” Robertson says. “Like, an all-whole-grain utopia.”
The artisanal bread-making scene now so popular in hippie havens and farmers’ markets across the country has deep roots in West Marin. That’s where the late Alan Scott, the pioneering oven-builder widely credited with the revival in brick-made, wood-burning ovens — and the resultant boom in artisanal bakeries and pizzerias — constructed his first brick oven for Laurel Robertson, author of the seminal 1976 vegetarian cookbook Laurel’s Kitchen, and where he established a sort of impromptu salon for idealistic young bakers eager to master the old-world techniques he championed.
It was from that West Marin Victorian that Scott’s neighborhood bread-baking business emerged, and where scores of others were inspired to do the same. His 1999 book The Bread Builders helped spawn a new generation of bakers eager to construct their own backyard ovens and make rustic, whole-grain breads. That included Robertson and wife Elizabeth Prueitt, early protégés of Scott’s, who eventually founded (through a loan from Scott) the Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes and Mill Valley before moving on to enormous acclaim at Tartine, where their country bread has attracted a cult following.
“Alan is why we all ended up there,” Robertson says. “He enabled the whole baking thing to happen. He was about forming a community around the oven.”
From Point Reyes to 17 Madrona in Mill Valley
Many still remember the buzz around the incredible baked goods coming out the magical space on the side street, near downtown Mill Valley, here’s where Chad and his then-wife Elizabeth Prueitt moved in 2000, for a too-quick, two years before opening the first Tartine location in in San Francisco’s Mission District in 2002.
The return has brought back memories for Prueitt. “What a full circle moment. What we started at Bay Village Bakery in Point Reyes has grown to become one of the most influential forces in baking, and to return to the region where it all started feels surreal. I’m so pleased to re-establish roots in Mill Valley,” said the Tartine co-founder.
Marin Restaurateur, Ged Robertson, who has brought us many local favorites, including Shoreline Coffee Shop and Watershed in Mill Valley, occupied this hallowed space for just over 20 years after the pair left for the city, and remembers thinking they were “big shoes to fill.” Luckily, he recalls, another tenant moved in to that space, before he opened Small Shed Flatbread around 2004, and later Molina in 2014, and then Bootjack before selling to current owners. “I met Chad through Alan Scott, who built an oven for me, and gave me Chad’s books on breadmaking.” says Robertson, “Chad came by when we were building the oven and gave us tips on our pizza dough, which is what we still use today at Watershed. His bread was and is exceptional, so getting a first hand instruction from Chad is something memorable. As if it was handed down from your own Nona.”
The cozy space at 17 Madrona continues to work its magic with its latest tenants, Gemma Edward Aron and Nicola Carey, who opened Madrona Bakery in 2023. The original oven is gone, but their new oven, nicknamed Elvira, was built by Malcolm Chase (an acolyte of Alan Scott) in the same style. The quality and the charm remains — and it might even be the case that Madrona will be a crosstown rival for Tartine, heating up the competition for world class bakeries in Marin.
Fun Facts About the New Mill Valley Location
We stopped in to meet general manager Derek Belanger and learn a little more about what we can expect from this fourth Bay Area location of the iconic bakery.
Tartine’s origins are in Marin. Could you tell us a bit about that? Has this been a homecoming for the brand?
Chad and Elizabeth, the founders of our company, started here in Mill Valley. They also had a place out in Point Reyes and then they left to go open Tartine in Guerrero, and now they’re back. It’s really wonderful to have Tartine bread back in Marin County.
Will this branch offer the same menu as your other locations?
We are a little bit unique; we are the only location not in an urban area, so it’s a lot easier to park. We have a couple of items on our menu that are unique to us, such as a beautiful Danish with peaches and Mt. Tam cheese from Cowgirl Creamery that can only be found at this location. It’s delicious.
For someone new to Tartine, what are the signature dish/dishes?
If you can get here early enough absolutely grab yourself one of our famous country breads, it is the thing that launched the entire business, ultimately. Our croissants are incredible! Our morning buns are also our signature pastry. If you don’t get a chance to get a loaf of bread, the open face sandwiches we do are served on our grilled country bread are all delicious as well.
Is there anything for someone who is gluten free?
We feature several savory dishes as well as some pastries that are made without gluten, but because we use flour on premise, we classify our flour-free baked goods as wheat free which includes muffins made with oat flour, almond meal, brown rice flour; coconut macaroons; and cookies (cherry oatmeal, salted chocolate buckwheat).
Can you tell us anything about the staff?
We’ve hired 20 excellent people and continue to add to our team. Rose joined us from the Guerrero location. She worked in the original location for three years. Her mother works there. Her aunt works at Tartine manufacturer commissary, and so she’s from her whole family has been with Tartine for years and years and years.
