Tartine has leased a 4,000-square-foot former CVS at 351 California St. in the Financial District for its fourth San Francisco location, with an opening planned for next year.

Tartine has signed a lease for the former CVS at 351 California St., its fourth San Francisco location. The bakery is taking a 4,000-square-foot space at the corner of California and Sansome and plans to open next year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The storefront sits at the base of the 16-story J.H. Dollar building on the California Street cable car line, and last held a CVS drugstore. Tartine says it will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner there — an all-day format for a corner that lost its anchor tenant. The move follows the company's announcement earlier this summer that it would expand into the North Bay.

The fundamentals that decide whether a room this size holds a corner this prominent aren't set yet: Tartine has not released a seat count or menu pricing, the lease term wasn't disclosed, and the opening is pegged to "next year" rather than a fixed date.

The operator is one of the most recognizable names in the city's food business. Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt founded Tartine in 2002 in a small Mission storefront on Guerrero Street, and its naturally leavened bread and pastry program helped push a generation of American bakers toward long-fermented sourdough. City business records list Tartine Restaurant Group LLC behind the 9th Avenue café at 1226 9th Ave., registered in June 2019, and Tartine Partners LLC behind two Alabama Street addresses — the Cookies & Cream shop at 595 Alabama and a commissary at 550 Alabama, both on the books since 2014.

"Tartine was born and bred in San Francisco, and we remain deeply invested in the community that has helped us flourish for more than two decades," CEO Dar Vasseghi said in a statement to the Chronicle.

A drugstore vacated the corner; a 4,000-square-foot all-day bakery is taking its place. Whether the math works on that footprint is the question the opening — whenever it lands next year — will answer.