A Decade Of Balkan Pastries And So Much More At 12th Ave’s Byrek And Baguette

12th Ave’s Byrek and Baguette doesn’t really need any hype or social media influencers to build its steady business from regulars and the kids from nearby Seattle University. A decade on this stretch of Capitol Hill will do that.

“We don’t do any advertising,” Natalie Gjekmarkaj said with a small laugh. “People just know us.”

Tucked in among the neighborhood’s busier corridors, the eatery doesn’t pop up on typical lunchtime sandwich searches. The focus here is byrek, the flaky, crispy, filled pastry of the Balkans.

“Even if somebody wants to come here and look for sandwiches, our restaurant doesn’t come up,” she admits. “But the people who know us? They’re coming. We have very loyal customers.”

CHS was there in May 2015 when Gjekmarkaj introduced the pastry and her new cafe to 12th Ave. “My home country Albania — byrek. Even in Italy, Croatia, Serbia… If you go in Turkey it’s a big deal, too,” Gjekmarkaj told CHS of the appeal back then.

A decade later, customers are coming back for the pastries. And, yes, they can also get a sandwich. The spot sources its bread daily from Grand Central and makes nearly everything else in-house — dressings, marinades, even the pesto, which has become a surprise favorite. “We use real olive oil. Fresh lemon. Fresh-squeezed orange juice,” Gjekmarkaj says, ticking off the staples. “We try to use very good quality food.”

That attention to detail extends to the kitchen, where longtime staff keep the recipes consistent and the atmosphere steady. “Some people have been here seven or eight years,” she says. “At the beginning, it was just me in the kitchen. Now I have people I trust.”

The pandemic knocked her business around, like it did for so many on the Hill. Gjekmarkaj opened a second location near the University of Washington just before COVID hit.

“We opened eight months before the pandemic. As soon as it started to get busy, the pandemic came,” she says. “It was dead. Nobody was there.” With an uncooperative landlord unwilling to offer any breaks, the decision to walk away wasn’t hard. “Beautiful space, but the rent was outrageous. He didn’t help us at all during the pandemic.”

The original cafe on Capitol Hill managed to find its footing with old-school work, showing up, day after day, with the same quality and care. “It’s all word of mouth,” Gjekmarkaj says. “That’s the best [advertising].” A new website is on the way, one that’ll include options for catering and online orders.

Gjekmarkaj grew up cooking alongside her mother, a chef at one of Albania’s best restaurants at the time. “I started cooking at 10. I made baklava from scratch,” she says. “My parents were working, and I was the oldest, so I had to take care of things.”

Though she studied finance and worked in a bank before moving to the United States, the kitchen always pulled her back. “I feel better here than I did in a bank,” she says. “I love it.”

Even now, she spends time on the line, helping prep, taste, and fine-tune. Her crew is international — staff from the US, Mexico, Ukraine, and the Middle East — and they share the same attention to detail she does. “You buy onions already triple-washed, but they wash them again before they peel, and then again after they peel,” she says. “They care.”

Customer feedback often shapes what ends up on the menu. Their burgers, for example, were added only after people kept asking. “We didn’t have them before,” she says. Now they’re offering a lamb, jalapeno and onion, and a bruschetta burger. Same for the pesto. “We make it fresh, and people love it. So we started selling it by the 12 ounce container.”

Inside the kitchen, the energy is cooperative, not top-down. “I don’t like giving orders,” she says. “I tell everyone, give me your opinion. What do you think? Let’s work together.” That team-based mindset helps keep things low stress, and she believes that energy carries over into the food.

Capitol Hill isn’t the same place it was a decade ago — change is constant. But on this stretch of 12th, some things still hold: a commitment to good ingredients, honest work, and the kind of reputation built one neighborly recommendation at a time. Gjekmarkaj shares those values. “We love it here,” she says.

Byrek and Baguette is located at 732 12th Ave. Learn more at byrekandbaguette.org.

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