Altbau
184 N. eighth St., Williamsburg
Robertson, who moved to New York this 12 months to open his new bakery.
Illustration: Lauren Tamaki
Anybody who is aware of something about bread is aware of Chad Robertson’s title. And anybody who is aware of Robertson has been praying he’d grace this metropolis with a location of Tartine, the California-based bakery he co-founded along with his now-ex-wife, Elisabeth Prueitt, since first teasing the concept greater than a decade in the past. Tartine is after all the place Robertson’s popularity as a guru of modern-era sourdough was first established. Since opening in 2002, it’s grown to 13 places, a Tartine Manufactory restaurant, and varied cookbooks together with Tartine Bread, which is a benchmark for residence and professional bakers alike.
Robertson has eventually come to Brooklyn, though Tartine — wherein he’s nonetheless concerned — will not be. As an alternative, he’s placing the ending touches on Altbau, a 7,500-square-foot area on North eighth Avenue, simply off Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. Robertson says he wasn’t in search of his subsequent bread challenge — he was extra inquisitive about sourdough pizza, after consulting on F&F Pizzeria’s opening in 2019 — however it was the area that offered him. “It has home windows all the way in which round and skylights,” he says. “My New York companions had been like, ‘There simply aren’t a number of buildings like this, it’s very particular.’” Fittingly, the title “Altbau” is a German architectural time period that refers to prewar turn-of-the-Twentieth-century-era “outdated buildings,” or as Robertson explains, “quite simple — it seems to be like a cartoon drawing of an outdated constructing, type of a homey constructing.”
Accents throughout the cathedral-like inside come from maple reclaimed from the historic Unfastened-Wiles Biscuit Firm in Lengthy Island Metropolis, a ten-story facility that made Sunshine Crackers and Hydrox cookies that was as soon as the world’s largest bakery. These home windows within the new area additionally drew Robertson in. “On the unique Tartine, the kitchen is open to the road — it’s glass. The best way the road wraps across the constructing, everyone seems to be wanting instantly into the kitchen.” He says his intention is at all times to construct one thing that friends discover interesting, “however it must be good for me and all of the employees that’s working too.”
Altbau may have two enclosed, climate-controlled rooms — one for pastry (chilly), the opposite for bread baking (hotter) — and a Bongard four-deck oven. To start out, the menu will likely be easy, evolving as Robertson and his crew develop into the area; he’s tapped Pam Yung — a vet of Semilla in Brooklyn and Flor in London — to run the place with him. A few of the issues they’re engaged on embrace a jambon-beurre with native ham, and a BEC made with Japanese tamago as a substitute of the same old griddled egg. There’s additionally a model of the Argentine croissants referred to as medialunas, real-bran muffins, teacakes marbled with seasonal objects like squash blossom and zucchini, focaccia, the occasional pizza, grilled cheese on sprouted rye, and open-faced tartines. Recent bread will likely be baked simply earlier than lunch, at 11 a.m., and once more earlier than dinner round 4 p.m.
An upstairs area will be capable of host visiting bakers from all over the world — like Michael Schulze from Brotbruder in Freiburg, Germany, for his pretzels; and Bernardo Flores Alanís from BreAd Panaderos in Mexico for conchas — which is one other sudden perk of working in Brooklyn. “It’s straightforward to really feel lonely in Los Angeles,” Robertson says, joking. “Fortunately everybody needs to return to New York.” The second ground options each classic Tannoy Westminster hi-fi audio system and a 40-inch, medium-size New American Stone Mill, which Robertson will use to mill his personal flour. When Roberston began baking within the ’90s, he says the final knowledge was, “You’ll be able to’t bake with fresh-milled flour, it’s too unstable, it must age — however that’s not likely true.” In actual fact, a surge of artisan bakers — amongst them, Brooklyn Granary & Mill, which opened final 12 months — has put a renewed emphasis on regional flours and grains. Robertson will use each along with what he will get from Cairnspring Mills, a longtime favourite of his within the Pacific Northwest. He’s nonetheless getting used to the Northeast’s grain — our rising season is shorter and our flour is decrease in protein than what’s present in California — however he’s particularly enthusiastic about one native ingredient: maple syrup. “It’s costly on the West Coast,” he says. “I’ve obtained an excellent natural supply in Pennsylvania.”
A local of West Texas, Robertson first discovered his calling in Western Massachusetts, citing Richard Bourdon at Berkshire Mountain Bakery as his mentor within the early Nineties. Robertson has been spreading the gospel of high-hydration doughs (porridge breads, breads with candy potatoes and tahini purées) and lengthy fermentations ever since. He nonetheless exudes the look of a longtime Californian — flip-flops and a scruffy surfer’s beard are one thing of a trademark — however he’s acclimating to life within the metropolis, even when it wasn’t a part of his unique plan. “My entire objective was to simplify my life,” he says. “I needed to stroll a couple of blocks to work, and that fantasy is figuring out.”
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