Walnut Creek, California – If you spend any time in Walnut Creek and like pastries, you’re going to want to hear this!
A brand new branch of Paris Baguette Café has officially opened in Walnut Creek. It’s located right by Walnut Creek’s original Whole Foods and the School of Rock location on Newell Avenue.
We’ve been following the build-out of Paris Baguette Café for a while, and I stopped by to check out the newly opened breakfast and lunch spot.
Paris Baguette Café is an interesting fusion of Asian and French flavors. In this case, you get South Korean flair combined with traditional French pastries, macarons, espresso drinks, and more.
The café also follows a unique format. Most of the items on offer – and there are at least 20 to 30 each day – are displayed in big glass cases. You grab a tray and a pair of tongs, walk around and pick the items you want, and then check out at the counter.
When I visited, Paris Baguette had all kinds of delicious fruit and cream pastries.
They also offer traditional French items like croissants.
But that’s just the classics—their ability to innovate stands out. Mochi donuts are a popular item on sale at Paris Baguette, as are croissants topped with unique toppings.
The fact that they bake everything in-store and offer so many items also means they can innovate quickly when new trends come up.
On my visit, they were offering Dubai chocolate donuts, tapping into a very trendy social media item. Unsurprisingly, they were all sold out!
In addition to the basic breakfast items behind the display case, Paris Baguette Café sells tasty full-size cakes and slices of social-media-friendly items like rainbow cake behind the counter.
The macarons are terrific too, and they come in a wide variety of flavors.
The store offers simple lunch sandwiches, but again, their main focus is on pastries and breakfast items.
I got a fruit and cream pastry, which was delicious.
I also got a filled donut. It was light and fluffy, with delicious pastry cream that enhanced the traditional French item with the intense sweetness of Asian desserts.
I paired the sweets with another staple of French food – coffee! Here, Paris Baguette Café sticks to European traditions, selling coffee from Lavazza, a classic European brand.
I got a soy milk iced latte, which was excellent. Everything at Paris Baguette Café is fairly reasonably priced, which means you can grab several sweets and try different things out.
It’s a great experience for kids too, because they can go around with the tongs and select the items they specifically want. Since everything is on visual display and you can walk through the store and pick out each item, it’s perfect for kids who can’t yet read a menu.
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The shop also focuses heavily on being the kind of “third place” that many coffee chains are now trying to emulate. They’ve got tons of seating, with plenty of space to set up a laptop and work for a while. That’s a rarity in this little corner of Walnut Creek, so it makes a nice spot to stop in if you want to get some laptop work done.
Paris Baguette is expanding quite rapidly in the Bay Area. I had always gone to their Dublin location, but they recently opened one in Pleasant Hill, just a few minutes down the road from Walnut Creek.
Overall, the items at Paris Baguette aren’t as authentic to the French originals as pastries at places like Maison Benoit in Danville. But by going in a different, fusion direction, Paris Baguette introduces something new to the 925’s pastry scene.
It’s nice to see a new addition to the Walnut Creek café scene. I’ll definitely be stopping by here for a pastry and when I need a spot to work on an article outside of my house.
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