The Opening
Paris Baguette will cut the ribbon on its Missouri City, Texas, bakery café on October 31, marking the brand's 30th unit in the state and its latest move in an aggressive North American expansion. The café sits at 6266 Highway 6 inside the Kroger-anchored Colony Lakes Shopping Center, positioning it to draw from the Sienna, Riverstone, Quail Valley, and Lake Olympia trade areas southwest of Houston.
The unit is franchise-owned by Osman Ulhaq, a career hospitality and brand operator who cut his teeth at InterContinental Hotels before moving into leadership roles at Honda, Lexus, and Yum! Brands. Most recently he served as executive vice president and chief strategy and growth officer across three Arizona credit union organizations before returning to the Houston market. Ulhaq is joined by Krystle Ulhaq, Vice President of Talent and Experience, in running the operation.
Jobs and Community Ties
The Missouri City café has hired 45 local workers ahead of opening — a meaningful payroll addition for a single-unit franchise — and Ulhaq said he plans to deepen that footprint through partnerships with local food banks and No Kid Hungry. The hire-local strategy mirrors a broader franchisee playbook that Paris Baguette has leaned on as it scales: embed community-facing operators in suburban growth corridors where foot traffic anchors like grocery chains drive repeat visits.
For a bakery-café concept competing in the crowded foodservice daypart, the grocery co-tenancy is a deliberate choice. Customers already making a weekly Kroger run become natural café prospects — morning coffee, an after-school pastry, or a custom cake order for a weekend celebration.
Scale and Outlook
With more than 4,000 locations worldwide and 350-plus cafés operating across North America, Paris Baguette sits firmly in growth mode. CEO Darren Tipton has set a target of 1,000 U.S. and Canadian locations by 2030, a runway that requires sustained franchisee recruitment and deal velocity. Texas, with 30 units now open, is shaping up as one of the brand's anchor states for that push.
For operators and franchise investors tracking better-for-you and artisan foodservice concepts, Paris Baguette's suburban-franchise model is worth watching. The brand leans on local entrepreneurs with cross-industry backgrounds — hospitality, retail, financial services — rather than multi-unit QSR veterans, a sourcing strategy that broadens its franchisee pipeline but also demands robust training infrastructure. The Missouri City opening, with its locally recruited 45-person team, will serve as a real-world proof point for that approach in the Houston DMA.
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.
