Daniel B.
Yelp
Paris Baguette opened its second Southeast location in Duluth, Atlanta's Koreatown, in July 2016. In size, it's significantly bigger than Georgia's first Paris Baguette which opened on Buford Highway in Doraville in January 2014. For those that don't know, Paris Baguette is a French-themed bakery-cafe chain with thousands of locations in South Korea and hundreds abroad including many in the US.
I love the clean and modern look of this brand. Its stores are bright and shiny and the workers wear neat French baker-inspired uniforms with pinstriped aprons and standard-issue berets. This location in Duluth looks fantastic. The inside is one large, open, and almost cavernous space with plenty of seating, making it a great place for group meetups. There's a variety of seating options from cute and intimate two-top tables with cushioned button chairs to a sizable wooden communal table with matching bench seating. The floors are tile or polished concrete. Big exterior windows allow lots of natural light in while several interior windows show off the kitchen and bakery in the back.
Most of what Paris Baguette sells is made in-house, though I believe some items are shipped from a distributor. Examples of these may include the prepackaged stuff you see on the tables such as truffle gift boxes, cookie canisters, fruit jam, and individual bagged portions of cheesecake. That's not to say they're bad, but just something to note.
Like other Asian bakery-cafes, Paris Baguette has a self-serve system for obtaining pastries. You get a tray, line it with paper, and use tongs to grab what you want. If you're getting your pastries to go, the staff will box and bag up your items at checkout. The self-serve display cases have all sorts of fresh-baked breads and pastries like baguettes (various), croissants, loaves of bread (various types like milk, multigrain, and raisin bread), donuts, buns, muffins, and croquettes. One of Paris Baguette's most popular pastries is the croissant donut (cronut). If you get one thing here, it should be the cronut. They have different kinds and they're delicious (though heavy). There are also savory items like the sausage stick bread which is similar to a glorified corn dog.
The refrigerated display cases contain sweet treats such as flan and individual servings of pudding (e.g. mango and royal flavors at $3.95 per individual serving), three-packs of macarons (raspberry, blueberry, and coconut for $4.25), cheese souffle cake ($2.25 for a single serving), red velvet cupcakes ($4.25 each), and rose grand macarons ($2.75 each). A lot of these concoctions are sold in adorable packaging with snap-shut bubble-top lids.
Paris Baguette's cakes are popular and ideal for special occasions. Examples of cakes and pricing from a recent visit:
* Mango Coconut Cake - $33
* Cappuccino Cake - $28
* Romance Cake - $26
* Mini Sponge Cake - $26
* Strawberry Fresh Cream Cake - $34
* Cheese Cake - $34
* Mocha Cake - $32
* Green Tea Blueberry Cake - $34
* Chocolate Strawberry Cake - $34
* Green Tea Chiffon - $36
* Blueberry Chiffon - $36
* Chocolate Chiffon - $36
The cakes look and taste terrific. They're like works of art with a fine attention to detail. For example, the Cappuccino Cake has a faux chocolate handle and the Mocha Cake is topped with what looks like ruins of various cookies. I've ordered or had cake from both Georgia locations of Paris Baguette and the cakes consistently look and taste good. From this location, I've had Green Tea Blueberry Cake, which I recommend.
The cafe also sells packaged grab-and-go sandwiches. They're made fresh daily and include sandwiches such as a spicy Crab Salad Sandwich (made with imitation crab and wasabi, $6.50), a Crunch Sandwich (made with coconut crunch bread and ham, $5.95), a Caesar Chicken Baguette Sandwich and a Tuna Baguette Sandwich. Both baguette sandwiches are relatively new additions. They're $6.95 each and can be toasted by the staff.
Beverage-wise, Paris Baguette offers a nice variety of espresso-based coffee drinks and different types of coffee brews as well as teas, frappes, smoothies, and seasonal selections like Peppermint Mocha, Peppermint Hot Chocolate, and Pumpkin Spice Latte. Most drinks come in 16 or 20 ounce sizes, hot or iced, and cost about $4-6 each. I recommend one of the Velvet Iced Teas, either the Almond or Orange. Both are quite smooth, tasty, and refreshing. I've also had the Green Tea Frappe (made with soy milk) at this location and enjoyed it.
Service is fine.
Store hours are Sunday-Thursday, 8am-10pm, and Friday-Saturday, 8am-11pm. It's better to visit during the daytime. At night, most of the day's stock has been sold and won't be refilled until the following day. During one trip after 9pm, remaining pastries had been relegated, unlabeled, to one corner of the display case. I picked up what I thought was a donut, but it turned out to be a curry croquette ($2.75). The store had also run out of forks. How does that happen?