Tatte is an all-day cafe best known for having a name with a phonetically misleading pronunciation (the employees wear shirts reminding customers: "Tatte like latte") and spreading like wildfire in the cities where it lands. Because New York City is sorely lacking in aesthetically bland, spiritually swagless, out-of-state bakery chains, on Friday it finally made its debut in the Flatiron District (though it claims Gramercy), opening its doors on the corner of Park Avenue South and East 24th Street.
It's the brand's flagship New York City outpost, having already colonized a bevy of vacant storefronts and shuttered Starbucks across Boston and the greater D.C. area. And while locals may groan whenever another hollow, private-equity chain opens on their block, Tattes are known for drawing a more direct ire in recent years—largely over the company's "Israeli-inspired" dishes and allegations that the company's lead investor has been part of an organization that donates sizable sums to the Israel Defense Forces.
For those who've never been (or have not seen "The Drama," a film that poses the question: Could someone as beautiful as Zendaya really fall in love in a Tatte?), the restaurant sits in the same fast-casual genus as Le Pain Quotidien and Bluestone Lane—copy-and-paste eateries with that 2007-suburban-kitchen decor, vaguely gesturing at some ambiguous Western European charm, but which ultimately serve the same offerings of any breakfast and lunch spot: coffee, salads, and sandwiches.
But where LPQ thinks it's nodding to a French countryside rusticism, and Bluestone Lane to an Aussie's sense of play and high-octane, "Love Island" color palette, Tatte seems to be grasping at something a bit more generic and harder to pin down. It's a lot of beige walls, white tile, and sans-serif fonts—maybe like a more elevated Rae Dunn collection.
Tatte was founded in 2007 by Tzurit Or, an Israeli filmmaker-turned-home-chef who attributes cooking in a kibbutz kitchen as a girl—and baking during her two-year stint in the Israel Defense Forces as an adult—as major influences in Tatte's menu, which features the typical brunch stuff "with a twist," the twist being shakshuka and a Caesar salad but with tahini. She opened the first brick-and-mortar Tatte in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 2008, and went on to open 15 more locations in Boston and D.C. during her stint as CEO, growing the store's brand and image as a Bostonian staple. As of this writing, there are now more than 50 restaurants across six states.