The Opening

Paris Baguette will open its 30th Texas bakery café on October 31 in Missouri City, a Houston-area suburb, bringing the brand's North American unit count past 350 locations as it accelerates toward a stated goal of 1,000 U.S. and Canadian sites by 2030. The new café sits at 6266 Highway 6 inside the Kroger-anchored Colony Lakes Shopping Center, a grocery co-tenancy that positions the concept squarely in the path of daily trade-area traffic.

Franchisee Profile

The unit is owned and operated by Osman Ulhaq, a multi-sector operator whose résumé spans InterContinental Hotels, Honda and Lexus dealerships, Yum! Brands, and most recently a C-suite role across three Arizona credit union organizations. Ulhaq's background in strategic growth and brand marketing aligns with Paris Baguette's franchise recruitment profile: the chain has increasingly sought operators with hospitality or multi-unit management experience rather than pure restaurant backgrounds. His co-operator, Krystle Ulhaq, serves as Vice President of Talent and Experience for the location. The café has already hired 45 local employees ahead of opening, with plans to expand headcount as the business scales.

Development Context

With more than 4,000 locations worldwide — the bulk of them in South Korea under parent SPC Group — Paris Baguette has made North America a priority growth corridor. The brand's 1,000-unit target for the U.S. and Canada by 2030 implies adding roughly 130 net new locations per year from the current 350-plus base, a clip that demands a steady pipeline of area development agreements and franchise-ready operators. CEO Darren Tipton has framed the expansion around franchisees who can embed the concept into neighborhood trade areas, a positioning that differentiates Paris Baguette from drive-thru-centric QSR bakery competitors and puts it in more direct competition with café-bakery hybrids such as La Madeleine and independently owned artisan concepts. The Missouri City trade area — which includes the master-planned communities of Sienna, Riverstone, Quail Valley and Lake Olympia — represents a dense, suburban, family-oriented daypart opportunity across morning coffee, lunch, and afternoon treats, as well as the custom-cake occasion that remains a meaningful revenue driver for the format. Ulhaq cited partnerships with No Kid Hungry and local food banks as part of the café's community engagement strategy, consistent with Paris Baguette's broader "Love Baked In" charitable programming. For operators evaluating the bakery-café segment, the Missouri City opening illustrates the brand's asset model: a franchisee-owned, locally staffed unit in an established grocery-anchored center, reducing cold-start traffic risk while leveraging the brand's global supply chain for ingredient consistency. That combination of reduced site risk and proven product systems has helped Paris Baguette compete for experienced multi-unit franchisee candidates in markets where labor and real estate costs continue to pressure new-unit economics.

For context on how bakery-café concepts are performing across the broader fast-casual segment, see our coverage of emerging fast-casual trends and franchise development activity.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.