A new Paris Baguette café has arrived in Crofton, with the bakery chain and local franchisee Sung Park announcing the opening at 1665-A Crofton Center on November 13. The Crofton shop marks the eighth Paris Baguette location in Maryland, part of a fast-growing local footprint that began with Park's first café in Bethesda.
According to the announcement from PR Newswire, Park signed an area development agreement to open four Paris Baguette locations across Maryland, and Crofton represents his third. He opened his first bakery café in Bethesda before expanding to Crofton, and the release notes he has additional sites in development across the region. Paris Baguette's own location page for the Crofton address lists the café as offering handcrafted cakes, freshly baked pastries and breads, and Lavazza coffee.
Park, described as a multi-unit franchisee, said in the announcement that his family favored Paris Baguette after seeing local enthusiasm for its artisan pastries and cakes. He also said he was thrilled to expand into Crofton following the Bethesda opening. Paris Baguette CEO Darren Tipton said he was excited to see Park bring the community-focused bakery café concept to his local trade area, a sentiment included in the same announcement.
A Franchise Built on Repeat Growth
Park's path into the Maryland market traces back to a lease he and his wife secured for a Bethesda café at 4925 Fairmont Avenue, according to 1851 Franchise. At the time, the Parks said they were working to open the first of four planned bakery cafés in the fourth quarter of 2024, with that Bethesda location expected to bring Paris Baguette's Maryland count to two once it opened. The Crofton opening now pushes that count to eight statewide, per the PR Newswire release.
Park's growth pattern mirrors a broader trend at Paris Baguette, where roughly 70% to 80% of franchisees are now multi-unit operators, according to restaurantdive.com. The outlet also reported that Paris Baguette signed franchise development deals for 162 units in 2024, a record for the chain at the time.
Eyeing 1,000 Locations by the Decade's End
Paris Baguette says it now operates more than 4,000 locations worldwide, including over 300 bakery cafés across North America, per the Crofton announcement. The company's stated goal is to reach 1,000 locations across the U.S. and Canada by 2030 — though a separate report from restaurantbusinessonline.com described the target somewhat differently, saying the chain was on a path to reach 1,000 locations in the U.S. plus another 100 in Canada by that same year. A January report from nrn.com similarly described Paris Baguette's U.S. division as looking to grow from 260 to 1,000 locations over four years.
That expansion push included plans to add roughly 150 bakeries in 2026 alone, according to restaurantbusinessonline.com's December 2025 report. Paris Baguette has framed the strategy around partnerships with local entrepreneurs like Park, with the company describing its mission as re-establishing the neighborhood bakery café as the heart of communities across the U.S.
The chain's cafés serve baked and brewed treats alongside a greeting the company uses across its locations: “Happy to see you. Happier to serve you.” Paris Baguette also says it runs Love Baked In, a set of charitable programs and initiatives serving local communities, and describes its broader aim as creating welcoming experiences through service, craftsmanship, and community connections. As reported by RestaurantNews.com, the Crofton café adds another stop to that growing Maryland map, with Park's remaining development sites still to come.
