Only a large metal roll-down door remains where the pinks and flowery front facade of Le Dix-Sept, the French inspired bakery at 3376 18th St. near Capp Street, once greeted customers. The bakery closed on April 18th.
Owner Michelle Hernandez said she decided to close the shop when the lease was up because the space had never been able to support her original vision due to the need for “essential internal structural improvements.”
The need for improvements kept Hernandez from ever baking at the shop. Instead, she used a commercial kitchen for four years until she opened her second location in Potrero Hill in November 2024.
Closing the space, Hernandez said, is bittersweet because of the regular clientele and community she had created. The space occasionally hosted pop-ups, art events and a book drive for the Mission Neighborhood Center.
It was also part of the cafecito tour by Mission Loteria and part of an edible excursion tour of the Mission.
“I was just there earlier and our clients came by and they were saying how sad and upset they were,” said Hernandez.
“And we feel the same way.”
Le Dix-Sept started as a pop-up in 2011 after Hernandez came back from Paris where she lived for three years pursuing a Le Grande Diplôme at the Le Cordon Blue and working in restaurants.
After almost 10 years selling at markets and as a pop-up, Hernandez opened her shop on 18th Street in 2020 and decided to call it Le Dix-Sept (seventeen in French) because aside from being her lucky number, she also lived in the seventeenth district during her time in Paris.
Hernandez, whose dad is Mexican and mom is Filipina via Guam, said that upon returning to San Francisco, she wanted to draw inspiration from the ingredients found in both her cultures (chiles, fresh fruits, hibiscus and vegetables) and mesh them together using the French techniques she learned in Paris.
Le Dix-Sept is also known for serving “botanical pastries,” meaning that every pastry has a botanical element to it.
While gone from the Mission now, Hernandez does not rule out a comeback if the right space comes along.
Le Dix-Sept’s second (and now only) location at 455 Carolina St., near Mariposa Street, is open Monday and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.