This website is a response to a petition and social media posts by Manuel Sanchez and Dane Thibodeaux, owners of the Sacré Sucré bakery of Baltimore, Maryland. For reference, here are links to those original posts:
I have also included links to screenshots hosted on this site, in case the material is modified or removed in the future.
Who am I?
My name is Ed, and I'm a residential tenant on the 3rd floor of the building that also hosts the Sacré Sucré bakery. My partner and I have lived in this apartment since October 2017, which predates the opening of the bakery and any baking operations by six months.
I am not a social media user and have been disappointed to see Manuel and Dane use their platforms on Instagram and Facebook to lie to the public. In building this website I have created my own platform which I hope to use to set the record straight.
Let's clear the air
It is disingenuous for Manuel and Dane to state that our conflict with them was over "bakery and butter smells", when they know full well that our complaint was of exhaust from their unventilated commercial oven. When they installed their oven, they failed to pipe the exhaust port out of the building and instead dumped it directly into the bakery space. The hot fumes worked their way through the 100-year-old building that we share and collected in our apartment at the top floor.
This exhaust did not have the pleasant smell of baked goods that Manuel and Dane have conjured for you. In reality, it was caustic to the throat and lungs, smelled of burning trash with notes of incinerated sugar, and turned out to be present at levels that were dangerous to our health.
We notified our property manager of the problem on February 27th, 2021 when I first noticed that I was waking up coughing on bakery production days. My partner had also been suffering from severe dry eye disease which prevented her from working and seemed to be exacerbated by the exhaust. At this time we didn't know that the exhaust was a health emergency, so we agreed to allow the property manager to resolve the issue on a relaxed schedule. In response to our complaint, Manuel and Dane:
Flatly denied that the bakery was responsible for the exhaust in our apartment
Accused us of making a false complaint with unspecified motivation
In order to prove our complaint, I purchased a consumer-grade air sensor from PurpleAir, installed it in a central area of our apartment, and began collecting data on particulate pollution. I discovered to my horror that exhaust from the bakery was causing the level of PM2.5 particles to rise to 4x the upper limit for "good" air quality as defined by the EPA. See the following graph from PurpleAir on a couple of typical bakery production days in March:
PurpleAir data from March 6th and March 7th, 2021. Note the dramatic spikes when bakery production begins at ~ 6am. The steep drop-off is due to me waking up coughing my lungs out and opening all the windows in the apartment (in March, brr).
With this evidence in hand, we notified our property manager on March 6th, 2021 that the issue was now a health emergency and that our apartment was being made uninhabitable by the bakery. In response, Manuel and Dane:
Continued to refuse to address the problem
Accused us of falsifying the PurpleAir data
Stymied the property manager's attempts to install and pay for an exhaust pipe, offered initially at no cost to Sacré Sucré
20 days later, no progress had been made, and we had been forced to temporarily vacate our apartment. At this time, the property manager invoked a clause in Sacré Sucré's lease agreement and entered the bakery to make emergency repairs, i.e., install the missing exhaust pipe.
In the weeks after the exhaust was installed, both my partner and I experienced dramatic improvements to our health (my persistent cough disappeared entirely, her dry eye disease became suddenly manageable). We do still occasionally catch whiffs of baked goods on production days but this is nothing we would consider complaining about.
Sacré Sucré: a small business with a corporate big business mindset
It is ironic that Manuel and Dane characterize our property manager as having a "corporation big business mindset" when they clearly have that mindset themselves. In their time as our neighbors, they have:
Been caught polluting our apartment and denied their actions in the face of all evidence
Abused their access to lawyers to bully the property manager with unfounded legal threats
Required cooperation from residential tenants to complete construction and maintenance projects, while simultaneously refusing to cooperate with projects inconvenient to the business
Demanded that we the tenants stop using our legal mailing address for package delivery so that they could retain 2001 Fleet St for their exclusive use
Refused to apologize for repeatedly disrupting our apartment's electricity, dumping sewage into our hallway, and painting our windows shut
Used the social media voice of their business as a tool for deceiving the public and bullying their neighbors
Responded to our health concerns with the statement "Your health is not our problem"
In summary, Manuel and Dane are greedy businessmen who abuse our community for their own financial gain, and feel that the rules that we all follow do not apply to them.
In defense of our property manager
I cannot speak to the other conflicts between the property manager and Sacré Sucré, but I can certainly vouch for the kindness and good intentions of the people at the Phoenix/M property management company (referred to by Manuel and Dane as the "800 S Broadway Development Corporation", no doubt to make them sound scary). Phoenix/M is a family business run by a team of five who work to provide affordable housing to the people of Baltimore. When pandemic broke out, they immediately assured their tenants that they would suspend rent for anyone unable to pay. They haven't increased rental fees since we moved in and have replaced several appliances in our apartment with minimal fuss. Various Phoenix/M team members have given us homemade cookies, lent us their favorite books, offered to repair our car, built us a bike rack, provided storage space for free, lent us a truck, checked in on us and delivered dry ice during power outages, etc. We are friendly with a number of other tenants and can confirm that Phoenix/M is similarly generous with all of us. It is outrageous for Manuel and Dane to characterize them as "corporation big business".
If anything, our property manager has been far too generous with Sacré Sucré. We wanted immediate action regarding the air quality issue, and questioned Manuel and Dane's intentions, but we were consistently encouraged to give them the benefit of the doubt and be patient. It was only after 20 days of inaction that we finally convinced the property manager to intervene. This is the period of time that Manuel and Dane are referring to when they write "We were never given a fair chance to address their concern appropriately".
Allegations of discrimination
Allegations of discrimination are serious and deserve a serious response. In emphasizing their status as a "minority-owned small business" and accusing our property manager of "discriminatory" action, Manuel and Dane imply that they are the victims of some form of discrimination. They give no evidence for this, and it is unimaginable to me the Phoenix/M team, whose own demographic composition reflects the diversity of Baltimore, would take actions rooted in prejudice.
In my view Manuel and Dane are not facing discrimination, only the natural consequences of their consistently selfish behavior. To attempt to evade responsibility for that behavior by claiming discrimination is, frankly, disgusting, and does a disservice to all those who face real discrimination in the United States.
What can you do to help?
First of all, thank you sincerely for reading this far! It does me good just to know that you've read a contrasting perspective.
I would further ask that you reconsider supporting Sacré Sucré as a customer. Until they learn to treat their community with fairness and respect, Manuel and Dane do not deserve to enrich themselves with your dollars. If you need high quality macarons in the meantime, I highly recommend Patisserie Poupon on Baltimore St. They emphasize flavor and texture, so I expect you will find their products tasty and satisfying.
If you are disappointed with Manuel and Dane's attempts to deceive you on social media, I recommend that you express that disappointment on their Facebook and/or Instagram pages, and consider unfollowing them.
