The Tous les Jours bakery at 520 Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair has closed its doors, less than two years after it opened in the space once occupied by Lululemon. Now, a New York City sandwich institution is reportedly eyeing the storefront as its next New Jersey outpost.
Tous les Jours closed its Montclair location on Thursday, according to The Montclair Girl, citing reporting from the Montclair Pod. The French- and Asian-inspired bakery chain, known for pastries, breads, cakes, coffee, and other drinks, had opened at that address in late December 2024, meaning the store lasted less than two years before shutting down. Tous les Jours did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the outlet reported.
The 520 Bloomfield Avenue storefront has something of a turbulent recent history. Lululemon departed the space in October 2023, and it sat vacant for more than a year before Tous les Jours moved in. As of the bakery's closure, the address was still listed as home to Tous les Jours in Montclair Center's business directory, according to the same report.
A Manhattan Deli Chain Circling the Space
According to the Montclair Pod's reporting, cited by The Montclair Girl, Lenwich is reportedly expected to take over the vacated storefront next. Lenwich has served New York City since 1989, specializing in fresh, made-to-order heroes, sandwiches, salads, and breakfast items across its Manhattan locations. Its menu includes customizable sandwiches and salads, along with named items like the Lenwich, Turkey Brie, Bello Melt, and Spicy Chicken sandwiches, plus a Caesar wrap made with grilled chicken, parmesan, romaine, croutons, and Caesar dressing. There is no publicly announced opening date for a Montclair location, and Lenwich also did not immediately respond to requests for comment, per the outlet.
Lenwich's interest in Montclair would follow its first formal move into New Jersey. The Hoboken Girl reported that Lenwich planned to open its first New Jersey location at 95 Hudson Street in Hoboken in 2025, though that store is not open yet. Commercial brokers involved in that Hudson Street deal, brokered by Atlantic Coastal Real Estate and Grid Real Estate, said last August that Lenwich was actively scouting additional New Jersey storefronts in Jersey City's Exchange Place, Fort Lee, and Edgewater.
From a Former Coffee Shop to Global Expansion
Lenwich's roots trace back to Korean immigrant brothers Chu Sei-hoon, known as Lenny Chu, and Brian Chu, who founded the brand on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1989 inside a former coffee shop space, originally under the name Lenny's, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. Chu had immigrated to the United States in 1983 at age 19 before building the deli brand that now operates several locations throughout New York City. The chain has since expanded internationally, opening its first overseas location in April 2022 at the IFC Mall in Yeouido, Seoul, with Chu describing the opening as bringing New York sandwich culture back to his native South Korea. Reporting from 2022 and 2023 pegged Lenwich's annual revenue at roughly $50 million, with the chain selling about 4 million sandwiches a year across a network of about 20 stores in the United States.
Tous les Jours, for its part, traces its own origins to Guri, South Korea, where the chain first opened in 1997 before coming to the United States in 2004. At the time the Montclair store opened, Tous les Jours had grown to more than 110 locations nationwide and 10 in New Jersey alone, part of a chain that has continued expanding internationally.
A Local Closure Amid National Growth
The Montclair shutdown comes even as Tous les Jours' parent company, CJ Foodville, posts some of its strongest North American numbers yet. The chain had 205 stores across North America as of June 2026, up from 150 at the end of 2024, according to The Korea Herald, which reported eight consecutive years of U.S. profitability through 2025. CJ Foodville pulled in roughly $137.8 million in Americas revenue last year, driven in part by demand for its whipped-cream Cloud Cake line, per BigGo Finance, which noted non-Asian customers now make up a major share of U.S. traffic. Earlier this year, CJ Foodville also brought a new automated production facility online in Gainesville, Georgia, built to churn out more than 100 million frozen dough items and cakes annually to support a stated goal of 1,000 North American stores by 2030, according to MK.
Tous les Jours isn't the only Korean bakery brand pushing hard into American suburbs. By mid-2026, Tous les Jours and rival Paris Baguette had combined for more than 500 U.S. locations, with both chains chasing 1,000 North American outlets by 2030, according to The Korea Times. Tous les Jours has expanded into markets including Annapolis, Maryland, and Portage, Michigan, even as the Montclair storefront changes hands. The Montclair Center Business Improvement District is a nationally accredited Main Street organization representing more than 400 retail and restaurant businesses along Bloomfield Avenue and adjacent downtown streets.
According to the Township of Montclair's Unified Land Use + Circulation Element, the town's retail sector has been fairly stable, with relatively low vacancy rates for storefronts.
Whether Lenwich has actually signed a lease at 520 Bloomfield Avenue remains unconfirmed, and no timeline has been set for converting the space from a bakery-cafe layout to a sandwich-shop setup. The Montclair Girl said it will update its reporting when it receives responses from either company.
