Disney and Pixar. Sirius and XM Satellite Radio. Quaker Oats and Snapple.
And now, Blue Bottle and Tartine.
The two foodie darlings announced today that they will be merging (or, more specifically, that the Oakland-based roaster is buying the San Francisco bakery.) In retrospect, this handshake feels almost preordained; both places routinely have long lines.
Having spread to New York, L.A and Tokyo, and raised over almost $20 million in 2012 and another $25 million in 2014, the 13-year-old Blue Bottle is poised to envelop the earth in pour-over drip. Now they can do it with frangipane tarts and brioche bread pudding, too.
James Freeman, Blue Bottle’s founder,
told the
New York Times he’s known Tartine’s Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt for over a decade, so this was not sketched out on the back of a proverbial napkin. Notably, Bar Tartine is not included in the deal. Robertson and Prueitt are selling the restaurant to chefs Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns.
Mergers feel more cutthroat than the marriage of two artisanal businesses, but as the San Francisco food scene matures and its more successful businesses export themselves to other cities, the practice could become commonplace. It’s hardly one of those “blood on the floor” acquisitions that lay off thousands of people. But let’s hope it’s more Apple and Beats Electronics than AOL and Time Warner.
[Via the New York Times]
