I don’t often eat at chains.
It’s not because I have much against big business, it’s just that, as a restaurant critic, most of my dining is ultra-local and for work
One notable exception is Tatte Bakery & Café, a Boston-born fast-casual eatery that has since expanded into the greater Washington, DC area.
I’ve been impressed by my past visits to the cafés, but I recently returned to its Reston, Virginia, location to see if it’s still as good as I remembered.
Tatte got its start in Boston and is now primarily owned by a big investor in the fast-cusual business.
In 2008, Israeli-born pastry chef Tzurit Or opened the first Tatte location in Brookline, Massachusetts. (“Tatte” is Yiddish for “papa.”)
Tatte really began expanding outside of the greater Boston area after investor Ron Shaich purchased over 50% of its ownership in 2016.
After all, Scaich — nicknamed “The Godfather of Fast Casual” — has a pretty stacked résumé as the cofounder and former CEO of Panera Bread, cofounder of Au Bon Pain, and a lead investor of Cava.
Tatte headed southward in August 2020 with its first location in DC’s West End neighborhood and it now has over 40 cafés throughout Massachusetts and the greater DC area.
The chain is more than just a bakery and café.
With intricately tiled floors, shiny subway-tile walls, and café tables that can barely withstand the heft of what I insist on ordering, the locations have a relatively uniform vibe that immediately says, “Tatte.”
The chain offers a wide selection of baked goods, plus brunch dishes, sandwiches, salads, and other fast-casual bites. It’s perhaps best to think of the flavors on offer as having Israeli, Mediterranean, American, and European influences.
Some dishes feel American with a twist (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato on challah bread), but others seem more explicitly Israeli (lamb kebab with baba ghanoush).
Fusion comes in the form of selections like a harissa-maple-glazed short rib served over eggplant and couscous.
Still, dessert is the best part of a visit to Tatte.
The centerpiece of the store is always the bakery counter, which I never pass without grabbing a halva brownie or pistachio croissant.
It’s often packed with a range of sweet and savory laminated-dough treats from flaky kouign-amanns to chocolate snails, all awaiting discovery among other non-refrigerated delights like the halva chocolate-chunk cookie and monkey bread.
A refrigerated case is usually filled with desserts ranging from fruity to chocolaty. The cheesecake is especially noteworthy, topped with a selection of different berries arranged by color.
I also never skip a cup of coffee here.
I am patently not a coffee drinker — even the most insipid versions have always been too bitter for me. But I am one when at Tatte, where I love to have a few sips of my husband’s pistachio latte.
The latte is made with house-roasted espresso that tastes like chocolate and caramel, but it’s the house-made pistachio syrup that’s captured my fancy.
It’s a pity to see the skillful latte art dissipate with each sip, but there are rewards at the end of the cup. The thick, slightly chunky syrup collects at the bottom, leaving a few final super-powered pistachio sips. I love it — and my husband says it’s like “chewable coffee.”
The shakshuka has always been my favorite.
Even in the diverse greater DC area, I’ve had trouble finding a truly great version of the egg dish, which is popular in the Middle East and North Africa.
But then I found Tatte’s shakshuka. There, the oversize pan filled with tomato, pepper, and onion sauce is always picture-perfect.
My favorite version of the dish on the menu has lamb meatballs and labneh.
In the crimson base, soft-centered eggs break to make the sauce creamier and even more enjoyable. The oblong lamb meatballs are spiced just enough to supply a taste of Israel that combines harmoniously with the blobs of spicy labneh (strained yogurt) and fresh parsley. The unexpected star of the show for me is the sweet and lightly spicy peppadew peppers on top.
The dish comes with three slices of toasted challah for sopping up every last clump of tomato and pepper.
My husband prefers the house breakfast plate.
At Tatte, my husband goes for a classic breakfast with toast, potato fritters, and crispy bacon paired with eggs cooked how you like. Diners can also add beef sausage to the dish.
The potato fritters are a highlight — two crispy latkes served beneath a dusting of Parmesan cheese with flecks of mint, along with tomato jam for dipping.
Tatte’s dessert offerings have impressed me.
I rarely repeat a dessert at Tatte. Not because I tire of them, but because there are so many I want to try.
On this visit, I went with the passionfruit krembo and halva bomb.
Krembos are a popular treat in Israel that are similar to a chocolate teacake or Mallomar. They’re essentially soft cookies topped with a pile of marshmallow fluff enrobed in chocolate.
The passionfruit krembo at Tatte takes the dessert to new heights by mixing passionfruit curd with vanilla meringue. The combination of textures and flavors made me go back for bite after bite.
I was just as impressed with the halva bomb, which wasn’t too sweet.
When I was growing up, my father was an avowed halva eater, but I was always turned off by the dense, clay-like bars of it he’d buy at the supermarket.
But the sesame paste in the center of the halva bomb I ordered was soft and vanilla-scented, covered in whipped milk-chocolate ganache and a dark-chocolate-ganache glaze.
I would love to see Tatte expand throughout the US.
My party of two spent $50.50 before tax and tip, which seemed like a fair price for two meals, a coffee, and two desserts.
Once again, I’d left Tatte feeling impressed and wishing the chain was expanding around the US quicker.
The brand is still only available in Boston and the DC Metro area, with its second Maryland location expected to open in the next few months.
But the expansion of Cava, another fast-casual chain Shaich invested in, gives me hope that Tatte could have a nationwide takeover in its future.
Cava began serving its Mediterranean fast-casual food in Maryland in 2011 and now has about 360 locations in half of the US states, with plans for hundreds more by 2032.
I don’t know if I plan on living in the DC Metro region for the rest of my life — all I know is that wherever I go next, there’d better be a Tatte nearby.
The post I visited Tatte Bakery & Café. The fast-casual chain is so incredible that states without it should be jealous. appeared first on Business Insider.
