A line of customers chasing free ice cream greeted Crème Paris on opening day at its new North Fresno storefront, as the crepe-and-boba chain served dozens of people within six hours of unlocking its doors at 681 E. Nees Ave. The grand opening marks the second Fresno-area location the company has launched in just six months, a rapid clip for a business that only entered the Central Valley market this year.
Owner Kamal Kaur opened the shop's doors offering a free scoop of ice cream to every visitor, no purchase required, a promotion featured on the chain's Instagram
account. According to the
Fresno Bee
, Kaur served dozens of customers within the first six hours alone, among them Dae Cho, who stopped by the new location with his daughters Jojo and Hannah. The menu leans into the chain's eclectic hybrid format, mixing crepes, raspados, boba, milkshakes, lemonades, horchata, halo halo, waffles, spring rolls, seasoned fries and wings, per the same report.
From Pleasanton Mall Stand to Central Valley Multi-Unit Operator
Crème Paris has a location in Pleasanton, as noted by its listing on Uber Eats. Kaur moved to Fresno after marrying her husband, who has family in the area, the Fresno Bee reports, and she opened her first Fresno location at 5677 E. Kings Canyon Ste. 101 in April. She also briefly operated a fourth Crème Paris location in San Jose, opening it and then selling it the following year, according to the same Fresno Bee account. Kaur told the paper that Crème Paris had received a good response in Fresno, and she said much of the business's traffic now arrives through UberEats and DoorDash.
The new Nees Avenue shop isn't the first specialty beverage concept to occupy that address. A boba shop previously occupied the space. The storefront was also home to Celsius Poke Bowl & Boba Bar, a poke and black milk tea float spot that Hoodline highlighted back in 2019 as one of the area's top cheap boba options.
Nees Avenue Corridor Keeps Drawing Beverage Chains
Crème Paris isn't opening into a quiet retail strip. Dutch Bros Coffee opened its 10th Fresno location on Dec. 18, 2025, just down the road, converting a former Boston Market building at 637 E. Nees Ave. near First Street into a drive-thru and sit-down shop, according to The Business Journal. By this past April, Dutch Bros had grown to 13 locations across Fresno and Clovis, part of a broader push that brought the chain's total Central Valley footprint to 33 stores.
Meanwhile, Philippine-founded fast-casual chain Potato Corner has secured space inside Fashion Fair Mall at 645 E. Shaw Ave. for an upcoming Fresno store, though the company has not provided details about an opening date. The arrivals reflect a quick-service beverage and snack landscape that keeps crowding into Fresno County, with national and international brands competing directly against independent operators like Crème Paris for the same foot traffic.
Wage Pressures Shape the Competitive Landscape
That competition carries real financial stakes for small operators. California's AB 1228 raised the minimum wage to $20 an hour starting April 1, 2024, but the law applies only to chain restaurant brands with at least 60 locations nationwide. Independent businesses like Crème Paris fall outside that mandate, yet industry research from Restaurant Realty Company found that smaller regional startups still face market pressure to raise their own baseline wages just to stay competitive for hourly workers against larger chains setting the local pay bar.
The new Nees Avenue location adds to Kaur's expanding Fresno footprint.
