Pastry case at Tous Le Jours' Baymeadows location, one of two popular French-Korean bakery chains that have arrived in Jacksonville | Hanna Raskin
Published on August 27, 2026 at 8:50 am
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The output is French. The ownership is Korean. But the ethos is thoroughly American at Jacksonville’s new favorite bakeries.
Jacksonville is one of many U.S. cities where pastry fans this year are storming the first local locations of the Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours chains. Paris Baguette opened at St. Johns Town Center in March, while Tous Les Jours debuted a standalone location at Baymeadows Village in May, following its debut location inside Beach Boulevard’s Lotte Plaza Market.
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Both companies are launching stores at an exceptionally fast clip. Tous Les Jours is aiming to operate 1,000 stores across North America by 2030. Paris Baguette has announced a similar goal, including 900 U.S. stores. Right now, the two brands combined have 500 locations nationwide, most of them clustered along the West and Northeast coasts.
In other words: Euro-Asian bakeries, where customers armed with trays and tongs select their sweet treats from glass-fronted cases, panadería-style, are about to become as ubiquitous as Panera Bread. For the moment, though, the corporate format is stoking excitement roughly on par with how a kid would feel about a once-a-year amusement park outing.
That’s understandable, considering the stores’ setup, which tracks back to 1980s Seoul. Unlike Vietnam, where banh mis are the handheld legacy of colonization, South Korea doesn’t have a historical culinary kinship with France. But the founders of Paris Baguette, the older of the two competitors, wagered that an enormous variety of breads and laminated confections would win over customers in a country where rice and noodles are the prevailing starches. (Their forms are drawn from the classical repertoire, but their flavors are sometimes Asian-esque, meaning matcha and red beans make frequent cameos: Imagine a French melody with Korean lyrics.)
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The originators’ vision has been tweaked slightly for the domestic market, with a greater emphasis on the “sit a spell” ambiance that Americans recognize as homey and inviting. Yet what appears to resonate with them most is the well-lit display of abundance that Paris Baguette’s North America CEO last year likened to Willy Wonka’s factory. Both Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours greet their customers with a stunning array of shapes and scents, the majority of which are butter-based.
By contrast, staffers stay behind the counter, which I’d guess contributes to a much higher ratio of pastry-to-person than either store could achieve if patrons had to ask for the Nutella banana pastry, guava Danish, yuzu pie, strawberry croissant and Portuguese egg tart too.
So, if the two brands are similar in so many ways, what distinguishes them? Which of the French-Korean bakeries should you hit up first? I visited Paris Baguette and Tous Les Jours—along with a locally owned cafe that offers a corresponding menu—to find out.
PARIS BAGUETTE
4624 Town Crossing Dr., Suite 125, Jacksonville
Like most global mega-chains, Paris Baguette is designed to fit seamlessly into a busy city block or strip mall with a disconcertingly hectic parking lot. Its Jacksonville location, two doors down from a Sally Beauty Supply, belongs to the latter category. Black-and-white bistro chairs and geometric floor tiling aside, nobody’s mistaking this bakery for a patisserie down the rue.
The upshot of the suburbanized setting, though, is there’s plenty of room for remote workers who feel more productive when eating mochi doughnuts, which cost approximately $5 and 200 calories apiece. (Paris Baguette is subject to federal nutrition-labeling laws governing chains with 20 or more locations.)
Like almost everything on Paris Baguette’s shelves, the flattish doughnuts are glazed to the hilt. Whether iced with sugar or brushed with egg yolks, the serve-yourself pastries shine; customizable cakes are more likely to impress with height or hue.
Photographers ought to be thrilled. Pastry aficionados should steel for disappointment. I didn’t come close to sampling everything from Paris Baguette’s ovens, so perhaps all the flavor and moisture were hiding out in another case. For me, though, the emblematic item was the seductively rounded coffee bun, so dry and characterless that its name seemed like a suggestion for where you might stick it. Fortunately, Paris Baguette has an extensive beverage selection.
Tous les Jours
9810 Baymeadows Road, #6, Jacksonville
On first glance, Tous Les Jours reads like its rival’s classier Continental cousin. The interior colors are earthy and serene; the sweet treats are subtler, with apparently hand-forged corners and curves doing the “eat me” work that’s performed by the razzle-dazzle palette at Paris Baguette.
To be sure, these are still pastries produced in massive quantities. But based on what I tried, if you found yourself in the mood for mocha cream bread or mango croissant or some other relatively obscure novelty, what’s served at Tous Les Jours would probably satisfy. In fact, I wouldn’t even steer you away from the coffee bun, which here is a tender and light tribute to the drink.
It also has a nubbin of coffee cream at its center. Pastry cream is the duct tape of both Tous Les Jours and Paris Baguette, making up for deficiencies in layers and lamination. At Tous Les Jours, a pistachio-enhanced version plays a starring role in what was surely my favorite item of the two-store tour: A golden-hued spiral croissant, draped with rich chocolate and flecked with meaty slivers of pistachios.
Gaa Café
9865-10 Baymeadows Road, Jacksonville
Gaa Café isn’t precisely analogous to the other bakeries on this list. It was inspired by Hong Kong cafes, serves just a few pastries, and has no ties to a multinational conglomerate. Kelly Lei, who relocated from Hong Kong in 2017 for her husband’s job, opened the pink-walled nook on Baymeadows Road in November.
“We are just a small café, so we can’t compete with the corporations,” Lei told me as she prepared my espresso, waving her hand toward Tous Les Jours.
That might have been the one thing that Lei got wrong on my visit.
I’d trade 100 pistachio spiral croissants—which is probably well short of Tous Les Jours’ weekly production—for one of Gaa’s fresh mochi balls. The orbs can be ordered topped with Dubai chocolate or Biscoff cookies, but I like them best plain, especially when hot from the steam oven. Crackly on the outside and alluringly chewy within, those mochi balls are the sweetest argument for simplicity in the face of plenty.
