TRE13E—A Baker's Dozen
I no longer know how I found it. Maybe I was one of those tired or curious people Laurel is telling me about, who just happen to stumble upon this hidden place and something draws them towards it—a feeling that the weight will be taken off their shoulders. As they walk upon Rue des Saints-Pères towards the Seine, looking inside the antique furniture stores and flower shops to their left, their gaze suddenly sinks inside a deep courtyard behind heavy access doors, and there, in the very back, is what stands out from the rest of the surroundings: TRE13E, a baker's dozen.
Image Credit: Ekaterina Vorobyeva
Its hidden location is "almost like a filter," says 13's founder Laurel Sanderson. Whoever is pulled from the streets towards the aged wooden entrance of warm light pouring out from windows will certainly be a grateful customer. I was going back to TRE13E for the interview with Laurel with a strong feeling of something good, and anticipating the home-like comfort among the unstoppable busyness of Paris. I was anticipating a fresh breath.
As I rushed through the courtyard, I came two hours before 13's closing to three casual women perched comfortably on high stools behind a table with notebooks, a laptop and a loads of vegetables. At the head of the table, Laurel was wearing a grey head scarf and a blue denim apron, just like last time. The very moment I heard the characteristic "Hey!" calling in my direction, all the worries of the day simply vanished. I was about to have a conversation with someone I felt I had strangely known for years.
As we sipped on white wine, Laurel talked about the harmony of what she created some three and a half years ago, the importance of communication, and how "things got a little bit more exciting than [she] had thought that they would," while laughing nostalgically with friends to her left.
In her 19 years in France, 13 is Laurel’s second business. She started with founding the Sugarplum Cakeshop. Soon Laurel decided that she not only wanted to make food in addition to dessert, but “to do something where [she] could cook and spend time with [her] clients at the same time.”
"That was really what I was going for when I started this place. I really wanted to feel at home and I wanted people who come here to feel at home"
Image Credit: treizebakeryparis.com
Since 2013, Laurel’s menus have offered “American Southern à la parisienne” for brunch & lunch. French toast chicken, buttermilk biscuits, artichoke pie, carrot cake, chicken pie in the winter and all things fruits-and-veggies during spring and summer. Every season, depending on available fruits and vegetables, 13 will have different relevant specialties ready to make it better. "We do lunch, and brunch, and tea, I just didn’t think that we were gonna do quite as much as we do." It's everything that a homesick stomach would wish for.
With the help of her Swedish-born “best friend in the whole world and an ace in running restaurants” Kaysa, Laurel has created a one-room (including the kitchen), home-like haven for the people seeking refuge from work, tired parents and many from Paris’ international community.
Standing behind her kitchen counter, Laurel sees them coming towards 13. "Anybody who is curious enough to look down here and be like 'huh, what’s that?'," is ready to be greeted as old friends by Laurel. "That was really what I was going for when I started this place. I really wanted to feel at home and I wanted people who come here to feel at home." Entering the door, you will hear the characteristic "Hey!" in your direction from the kitchen counter. It will be surrounded by shelves populated with cookbooks, pottery and plants, dim lighting and fresh smells of eggs, spices, chicken, vegetables and fruits delivered by people who care about the welfare of bio products and happiness of animals.
"The industry that we work in is hospitality. In French it’s called restauration which means to 'restore yourself.' Hospitality is not just about having food and then going back to work. You need a break, you need to turn your brain off..."
Image Credit: Ekaterina Vorobyeva
"It’s part of hospitality," says Laurel, "The industry that we work in is hospitality. In French it’s called restauration which means to 'restore yourself,' which makes a lot of sense. Hospitality is not just about having food and then going back to work. Especially in this neighborhood, and any neighborhood, you need a break, you need to turn your brain off, you need to change, you need to kind of décontractée a little from whatever it is that you’re concentrating on, whatever it is you’ve been doing, from being in a stressful environment. It's a two-way street: people want to interact. So a space where you feel at home, where you feel safe, where you feel welcome and wanted is a really important aspect of what we do."
The place is more than walking through a mysterious closet to submerge into new kinds of smells, safety and isolation. This special haven not only offers an unconventional home food experience, but also a different kind of human relationships and attitude. An embodiment of a true comfort zone, 13 welcomes to be unprecedentedly surprised. Thanks to corners such as 13, Paris doesn't spaces where one will feel a belonging in an overwhelming metropolitan which rings with loneliness.
“I’ve been abroad for more than 20 years, and I love living abroad, I really do, and I love France, but every once in a while you just need a place where you feel kind of at home,” Laurel says, “I really wanted to feel at home and I wanted people who come here to feel at home.”
TRE13E - A Baker's Dozen
16 rue des Saints Peres
75007 Paris
Closest metro stops: St. Germain des Près, Rue de Bac or Palais Royale du Louvre.
Bus: 27, 24, 95 Pont du Carousel
