French bakery-themed eateries are in expansion mode in the U.S. Americans have been baking their own loaves of bread since the lockdowns and have developed elevated standards for bread products, which means they are eager to purchase artisan-crafted delicacies. Thankfully, French bakery brands can accommodate all-day traffic beyond the breakfast/lunch/dinner staples, as the offerings of croissants, pastries, coffee and even alcohol, in some cases, are conducive to snack-time treats during mid-morning, mid-afternoon and late night hours. Many of these French bakeries are adapting to the new COVID-era, quick-shopping mindset by providing grab-and-go and drive-thru configurations. Another reason these French-inspired bakeries are trending is because their restaurants tend to mimic France’s tradition of outdoor patio dining, which is reassuring to today’s COVID-wary customer who wants to abstain from indoor dining. Ironically, the typical French café concept encourages a community-gathering vibe that today’s customers crave.
Paris Baguette, Au Bon Pain, Le Pain Quotidien and Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café have all been especially eager to make their mark on new U.S. sites. Watch for these French eateries to look for space in suburban and metro environments, focusing on lifestyle centers, power centers, downtown retail street fronts, mall food courts and ground-floor units of mixed-use buildings.
Paris Baguette has lofty growth plans, hoping to open up to 100 units per year over the next 10 years, starting in 2022. This year the brand expects to open between 25 and 40 new U.S. units. The franchise, which has benefited during COVID-19 through its smaller footprint stores that offer grab-and-go items, is initially targeting expansion into markets throughout New Jersey, Kansas and Florida. This will be followed by growth into the top 30 to 35 cities nationwide, especially Philadelphia, Dallas, Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., Scottsdale, Ariz., Portland, Ore., and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Paris Baguette looks for inline and end cap spaces in the 2,000- to 3,200-s.f. range, with at least 30 feet of frontage, in high-profile downtown city-center retail street-front sites and upscale suburban neighborhood power centers near offices, especially in markets that do not already have a similar French artisan bakery concept. Preferred co-tenants include more exotic/foreign grocery or restaurant brands, such as H Mart and Pei Wei Asian Diner. In anticipation of its growth, Paris Baguette hired a new chief development officer in November, and last month the franchise announced that the CBRE team will further assist with national expansion. As of August, Paris Baguette has already signed 64 new franchise agreements this year. Paris Baguette is known for its large assortment of fresh-baked French-inspired breads, cakes and pastries, in addition to sandwiches, salads, coffee and tea.
The Au Bon Pain bakery café chain was purchased by the Texas-based Ampex Brands in June, the same franchisee that oversees KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and 7-Eleven. Au Bon Pain will be the first brand in which Ampex Brands will act as the franchisor, rather than the franchisee, and the company will focus on expanding the bakery, as well as finding new franchisees. Ampex Brands, which hired the former senior franchise growth leader for Pizza Hut to act as the Au Bon Pain’s brand president, has indicated that it will concentrate on opening units within the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, followed by continued growth throughout the Midwest and Southern markets, including Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Georgia and Florida. Anticipate up to 20 new units per year over the next two to three years, beginning in late 2022/early 2023, with even more growth expected once franchise deals are signed.
In addition to opening non-traditional inline units, such as those found in mall food courts, airports, colleges, train stations and in the lobbies of mixed-use office developments and hospitals, Au Bon Pain will also open drive-thru configurations, in both standalone pads and end cap units, in urban-oriented power centers near office and apartment developments.
In addition, Ampex Brands will experiment with other prototypes, including smaller units with limited dine-in seating in the 1,000 s.f. and under range, as well as larger units, in the 3,500- to 4,000-s.f. range, that focus more heavily on comfortable community-connectedness seating areas. Generally, Au Bon Pain looks for space in the 1,000- to 3,500-s.f. range in high-traffic, upscale urban shopping centers and office buildings, and because the brand is trying to capture the millennial/Gen-Z crowd, look for ground floor of mixed-use apartments to also be targeted. Preferred co-tenants include non-competing restaurant brands attractive to the 20- to 35-year-old audience, including Qdoba Mexican Eats, as well as brands popular with the daytime working crowd, such as banks and The UPS Store. Au Bon Pain is known for its quick-service baked goods, including breads, croissants, bagels, muffins and cookies, in addition to sandwiches, soups, salads wraps, and variety of coffees and teas.
The fast-casual health-focused bakery/restaurant, Le Pain Quotidien, recovered from its total COVID-19 shutdown and subsequent Chapter 11 filing, thanks to the brand’s sale to Aurify Brands in June of 2020. Aurify has now opened 50 Le Pain Quotidien units, including 10 in New York City that had formerly been Maison Kayser restaurants, another restaurant brand in which Aurify purchased 11 of its 16 total units, all based in New York, last November. Aurify is anticipating continued growth of the Le Pain Quotidien restaurant not only in the metro districts of New York City, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., where the brand already has a presence, but also into suburban areas within the state of New York, in addition to city and suburban territories within Connecticut, Florida and California. Its units, that average 2,500 s.f. and are featured in urban inline and end cap ground-floor spaces of mixed-use buildings, should open at a rate of about 15 to 20 per year over the next two years. Co-tenants can include other popular fast-casual brands, such as Panda Express.
The menu at Le Pain Quotidien prominently features its freshly baked organic sourdough bread products, as well as butter brioches, almond croissants, salads and soups. Aurify, which introduced the Le Pain Quotidien app earlier this year, expects to modernize the menu with additional choices for breads, desserts, salads and coffees, as well as a potential evening menu that will include wine and beer. The restaurant’s grab-and-go packaged goods also expect to be more prominently featured.
Texas-based Sweet Paris Crêperie & Cafe, which signed its first franchise agreements in late 2020 for upcoming units in the new state of Oklahoma, is eyeing expansion into even more new territories, especially Las Vegas, Southern California and Southern Florida. The franchise will also continue to open new units throughout its home state, especially in San Antonio and Austin. Sweet Paris ultimately anticipates opening approximately five to 10 new units per year over the next two years and seeks inline and end cap space with an ample patio area in the 2,000- to 2,500-s.f. range, in mid- to upscale suburban lifestyle centers, especially near universities. Preferred co-tenants are those popular with the Gen Z and millennial female audience, such as True Food Kitchen, Crate & Barrel and Lululemon. Sweet Paris Crepêrie & Café sells French-inspired crepes with unique sweet and savory fillings, including Nutella and fruit, ham and cheese, and even a California-inspired turkey/avocado/bacon/cheese concoction. Its crepes are meant to be filling enough to be considered for mealtimes, rather than just snacks.
