Paris Baguette debuts neighborhood-inspired store design

Paris Baguette is giving itself a brand makeover as it looks to expand nationwide.

The fast-growing, French-inspired neighborhood bakery café has unveiled a reimagined store and customer experience as it ramps up for major expansion. With more than 90 U.S. locations, primarily on the East and West coasts, Paris Baguette expects to have 1,000 locations by 2030.  

The company said that each location will be home to a variety of experiences “designed to showcase the master bakers and cakers deep passion in their craft while inspiring a welcoming invitation to all.”   The interior dining spaces and murals will be customized with images of local landmarks.

French architectural features will add eclectic flair with contrasting modern elements amid a palette of blues and soft white textures, grounded by dark accents. The brand makeover also includes new packaging and an enhanced digital and mobile presence.

The brand makeover followed extensive national consumer research which revealed that the association between the local bakery and its community had grown distant. Paris Baguette said it set out to fill the void and bring back the intimate dynamic. 

"We believe that every neighborhood deserves to have its very own bakery café and we're on a mission to make that happen," said Pete Bell, chief marketing officer, Paris Baguette. "With the brand evolution, we wanted to push beyond the wonderful service and delicious food offerings guests have come to expect and set the stage for exactly what the ideal café experience should look, feel and smell like. Our new design reinforces our goal to create a heartfelt, authentic and detail-oriented atmosphere that sparks moments of joy, community connection and changes our definition of hospitality."

Paris Baguette said it turned to Orlando-based creative agency Push and global commercial interior design and architecture firm Zebra to develop the vision to reestablish the neighborhood bakery café as the heart of the community.

"As we thought about the design, we wanted to stay true to what the brand stands for: expertly crafted goods made for life's moments big and small and a pride for the people and neighborhoods that we live in, work in, dine in," said Ashley Popich, director of interior Design, Zebra. "Consumers want more out of every interaction, every touchpoint with a brand. They want to be immersed and have a personalized experience. We translated that into a distinguished environment that could be brought to life through the walls of your local bakery café, your Paris Baguette." 

Added Push CEO John Ludwig, CEO, Push: "The warm, long-standing relationship between a bakery and its neighbors has somehow been lost along the way. Paris Baguette captures those feelings of welcome and warmth daily; the rebrand is designed to remind people of what they have been missing. “

 Paris Baguette is also deepening its commitment to being a backbone of their local neighborhoods with the roll out of "Love Baked In" community initiatives. These include the following.

• Dough Raisers -- A local fundraising collaboration between community non-profit organizations and schools to "host" a Paris Baguette-style bake sale at their local bakery café and receive a percentage of proceeds from that day's sales.
• "Love Baked In" Baked Good -- A portion of proceeds for a designated "Love Baked In" cookie will be donated to a local non-profit partner chosen by each respective Paris Baguette location. Cake Day -- Proceeds on all cakes for one day go directly to the year-round local non-profit partner for each bakery café, giving those charities a groundswell of donations and support.
• Cake for Every Kid -- Through this random-acts-of-kindness initiative, Paris Baguette surprises deserving children in bakery café neighborhoods with "Love Baked In" cakes to help bring smiles to the faces of those in the community that need it most.