Fast Break: Lunch and macarons at Tredici Bakery & Cafe

It can be easy to miss this cute little bake shop on Capital Heights Avenue. If you’re not sure where to look, the tiny gray house with a powder blue door could be any other house, until you notice the tables on the patio out front and the sign proclaiming it as Tredici Bakery & Cafe.

Opened last November by Monica Shaughnessy of the Calandro’s Supermarket family, this quaint bakery serves up stylish “naked cakes,” some of the city’s only locally-made macarons and, starting this spring, lunch.

We stopped by on a weekday (the only days lunch is currently being served at the cafe) to sample Tredici’s specialty muffaletta and the soup of the day, a rich tomato basil.

Picky muffaletta eaters (like me) are in luck with this little sandwich, which goes easy on the olive spread and instead brings it home with more of the melty cheese, flavorful meat and extra crispy bread that will leave you embarrassedly trying to wipe off your table before anyone else sees it. Tredici’s tomato basil soup is hearty yet gently sweet—a perfect match for a shop specializing in desserts.

With our lunch we ordered a sampling of nearly every macaron in the display case that afternoon—hey, don’t give us that look, we were just doing our sweet, sweet research. The tiny confections were the perfect combination of soft and airy, with the maple cinnamon, coconut and almond flavors standing out especially.

If you’re in the neighborhood and looking for a fun and filling midday pick-me-up, Tredici has you covered, with pastries to spare to last you through the afternoon.

Tredici Bakery & Cafe is at 5078 Capital Heights Ave. and is open 8 a.m-4 p.m. Mondays, 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturdays. Lunch is served Monday through Friday.

Fast Break is a 225 Dine series that celebrates lunch in Baton Rouge. Follow along as we tour different lunch spots around the city.