A French-inspired bakery chain is moving into a storefront that spent three decades as a Raleigh neighborhood fixture. Paris Baguette will take over the former Zest Café and Home Art space at 8831 Six Forks Road in the Six Forks Station Shopping Center, with franchisee Devang Shah signing a lease for the 4,500-square-foot space in September.
The bakery is targeting a summer 2027 opening, according to WhatNow. Once open, the shop will offer French-inspired baked goods, cakes, savory offerings and coffee, and the project is expected to create between 20 and 30 jobs in the Six Forks area.
Zest Café served the Raleigh community for 30 years before closing at the end of 2025, and Paris Baguette is set to take over its former retail space. Shah said the accessibility of Six Forks Station from both the highway and surrounding local roads, along with its established residential community, factored into the decision to plant a bakery there.
A Franchisee Building a Local Footprint
Shah signed a franchise agreement earlier this year covering multiple Paris Baguette locations, and the Raleigh café is just the start. He intends to open at least one additional café after the Six Forks Station location becomes operational, and he anticipates funding that future development through a combination of personal capital and bank financing.
Shah and his wife already run two Cold Stone Creamery locations in the area, giving the couple experience operating multi-unit food businesses before taking on the bakery brand. Notably, neither of the existing Triangle-area Paris Baguette cafés belongs to Shah, meaning the Six Forks Station location will be his first foray into the brand locally.
Where Paris Baguette Already Operates Nearby
Paris Baguette already has a presence in the Triangle, with cafés reported in Cary and Brier Creek, per the same WhatNow account. Separately, WRAL has described the planned Six Forks Station site as the company’s second Raleigh location and noted that Paris Baguette has a café in Cary, a detail that differs somewhat from the Cary-and-Brier-Creek framing offered elsewhere.
Paris Baguette is headquartered in New Jersey and operates more than 300 cafés across the United States, with over 4,000 locations worldwide, the article notes. The brand first franchised in the U.S. in 2015 and has been expanding quickly since.
A Chain on a Fast Growth Track
The company’s Q2 2026 figures include 87 franchise agreements awarded and 39 cafés opened, alongside 63 signed leases, according to 1851 Franchise. The chain now operates more than 300 cafés across more than 30 states, with roughly 600 more in active development.
By the end of 2026, Paris Baguette expects to open more than 60 additional cafés and enter four new markets, 1851 Franchise reports, as the company pushes toward a stated goal of 1,000 North American cafés. For Raleigh residents who knew Zest Café as a longtime part of the community, the coming bakery represents the next chapter for the former café space at Six Forks Station.
