Germantown Brothers Put a Paris Baguette in Their Hometown — Plus More Intel | Eater DC

"A South Korean bakery chain expanding across the DMV (eight locations in Virginia and one in Rockville) opens a new outpost in Germantown on Saturday, December 14. The owners, brothers Michael and John Canterino, say this is just the beginning and they are already developing three to four more locations: “Our expansion is targeted towards the D.C. metro area, some of it overlaps with the Baltimore area a little bit,” Michael explained. The quickly expanding brand differentiates itself from other bakery chains by baking its pastries onsite at every location and franchising out locations specifically to local owners that have insight into the community. The Canterino brothers saw the bakery as “a sustainable brand in its prime” that could fill a hole in Germantown’s bakery market. The 5,000-square-foot store is one of the largest in the world and has perks aimed at the work-from-home crowd, including free Wi-Fi, plenty of outlets, and lots of free parking. During the soft opening customers were already enthusiastic: “All of our guests have been saying, you know, ‘we’re really happy that you’re here. We’ve been waiting for you guys. We have nothing like this here,’” John recounted. The grand opening will feature music (including Christmas caroling), a sketch artist, and free pastries for the first 50 guests; Michael added, “Also, in addition to that, I’ll probably just do random giveaways. Maybe every 100 or 200 customers we’ll give a cake out too.”" - Emily Venezky