Paris Baguette Is Korean. So Why Is America Buying It? The name says Paris. The business says Seoul. And Americans seem perfectly happy not to ask too many questions.
That's what makes Paris Baguette so interesting.
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The bakery chain was founded in South Korea in 1988 by SPC Group. It opened its first U.S. store in Los Angeles in 2005. Today, more than two decades later, it is charging across America with hundreds of cafés and a plan to reach 1,000 U.S. locations by 2030.
And the growth is getting hard to ignore.
Paris Baguette opened 77 cafés in North America during 2025, its biggest opening year yet. By May 23, 2026, it had already reached its 300th U.S. café, at Philadelphia International Airport.
So yes, the old “270 North American locations” figure is already outdated.
That was the picture around late 2025. By the middle of 2026, the U.S. alone had crossed 300, and the company was still opening stores in places like Texas, Ohio, Connecticut and Florida.
That's not a bakery chain dabbling in America.
That's a bakery chain making a very serious bet on America.
And it raises a much bigger question.
Why do some foreign food brands fail spectacularly in the U.S. while others suddenly become everybody's new favorite?
Paris Baguette might have a pretty good answer.