This Stunning French Bakery Is Expanding to Potrero Hill

This Stunning French Bakery Is Expanding to Potrero Hill

One of the most beautiful bakeries in San Francisco is opening a second location in Potrero Hill, spinning even more brioche, canelés, and nougat. Early this summer, Le Dix-Sept will move into a modern storefront at 455 Carolina Street, across from the late Anchor Brewing Company, and next to new Italian restaurant La Connessa. Baker-owner Michelle Hernandez has cultivated her aesthetic over a dozen years, and she’s known for French pastries in wild botanical flavors and colors. She’s keeping her existing hot pink spot in the Mission and says Potrero will be the new lilac flagship.

Hernandez trained at Le Cordon Bleu and Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris before coming home to the Bay Area in 2011 to found her bakery and open a storefront in the Mission in 2020. She planned to bake in that space, but unfortunately, it never worked out. The team struggled with pandemic delays, then hit a water issue with the pipes when construction costs soared. Hernandez leased a separate production kitchen and has hauled pastries across town this entire time. So when a new development in Potrero offered her a fresh space with a functional kitchen, she signed. “I’m the most excited about streamlining operations,” Hernandez says. “We’ll be able to produce and sell in the same location. From my perspective, it’s the baker-owner’s dream.”

That means even more of Le Dix-Sept’s popular passionfruit tarts, brioche knots, custardy canelés, and tooth-sinking nougat. She’ll have the oven space for consistent choux and macarons, plus a sheeter for new layered pastries like chaussons aux pommes, those apple turnovers that puff like a book. Yes, there will be croissants, but no plain butter — instead expect fresh twists. On the savory side, a weekly focaccia sandwich will feature good cheese, seasonal veggies, and sometimes smoked salmon. There will also be daily cake specials, like slices of Mexican chocolate mocha, guava tres leches, or chamomile and kumquat. Coffee will still come from Lady Falcon, frothed into new lavender and rose lattes, alongside fizzy drinks in flavors like like prickly pear.

Unlike the Mission storefront, which somewhat resembles a gingerbread house with hot pink icing, the new Potrero space will be modern and industrial with tall windows, steel beams, and cool purple details. David Baker Architects designed the new Mason on Mariposa building, which includes luxury apartments, retail storefronts, and a walking path with cafe seating. Le Dix-Sept will dedicate most of its 1,100 square feet to baking, but diners can step up to the front counter, pastry case, and retail shelves. A huge lilac lime-washed wall serves as backdrop to the operation.

Hernandez promises better parking and earlier hours, and of course, she’ll personally be there to keep an eye on the case and greet customers. Over the years, she’s had followers from the farmers’ market ask her to make their wedding cakes and baby’s first birthday cakes. “I always wanted to grow my community through food, and provide all this love and happiness, and be part of these iconic milestones in people’s lives,” she says. Now, she’ll finally be in the same buzzing bakery space, to help them celebrate every day.

Le Dix-Sept (455 Carolina Street) debuts its second location in summer 2024.