Ten Belles was founded in 2012 and is a values-driven, sustainable and socially responsible sourdough bakery and specialty coffee roaster. Its commitment is to regenerating people, place and the planet: artisanal methods, a team it wants to empower, less harm to the environment, and business used as a force for change.

The original café by the Canal Saint-Martin has been open since 2012. It serves sandwiches, salads, pastries and hot and cold drinks to eat in, on a small terrace or to take away, with the house sourdough, retail coffee and merchandise to carry out, and it takes no reservations. Ten Belles Bread, opened in 2016 in the 11th, is the largest of the three sites and holds the bakery and the central kitchen that makes all the food sold across the cafés, fresh each day from seasonal, local and organic ingredients. The bakers mix sourdough from flour, water, sea salt and naturally occurring yeasts, shape the loaves by hand and bake them after an overnight fermentation, using flour that is organic or stone-milled from local grains. A third café opened in the 6th in 2019, near the Bon Marché.

Ten Belles has roasted its own coffee since 2019, weekly, in the 20th arrondissement on a Loring Falcon, which it chose for its low gas consumption and emissions. Green coffee comes from partners who work directly with producers, and the cafés and the wholesale customers are supplied by bike in reusable containers. The house blend, Le Mixtape, is built for a classic espresso profile from Brazilian and Colombian coffees.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Ten Belles