Tous Les Jours bakery brings a taste of Paris — via Seoul — to Beaverton

Tous Les Jours, the French-Korean bakery chain with more than 1,000 global locations, opened its first in Oregon in late January at Beaverton Town Square.

The bakery, found next door to Hae Rim restaurant and near the Trader Joe’s, is clean and brightly lit, with a walk-around pastry case filled with golden croissants and breads, some filled with strawberries and cream, others with red bean paste.

Customers grab paper-lined trays and pairs of tongs, pick out their kimchi croquette or blueberry cream cheese buns and pay at a separate counter with its own gleaming case of elaborate cakes and pretty macarons.

The name of the game is French-inspired pastries, some given a Korean twist, typically executed with maximum consistency.

It’s a fair replica of the kind of bakery you can find on every other corner in most cities large and small throughout South Korea, a country so obsessed with French baking that their team took home first place at the 2016 Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie — the World Cup of Baking — held in Paris every four years.

Tous Les Jours brings a taste of Paris — via Seoul — to Beaverton

Tous Les Jours isn’t even South Korea’s largest French bakery group.

That title would go to Paris Baguette, a Seoul-based chain with more than 3,000 locations. Like Tous Les Jours, Paris Baguette has made inroads into the United States.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see a franchise location open here soon.

Still, you’re probably not going to find the Portland’s area’s best croissant here (currently, that’s found at Ken Forkish’s Trifecta Bakery in Southeast Portland), but for a chain this big, execution is impressive.

Some early production issues seem to have been cleared up, and we found the pastry case well-stocked on our visit.

Until now, those seeking out this style of baked goods had to head to one of the metro area’s Korean markets or to a non-Korean Asian bakery.

Oyatsupan, the very good Japanese bakery in Beaverton, has a few items in common, most notably the milk bread, a thick-sliced loaf of fluffy white bread called Whipped Cream Pan Bread at Tous Les Jours. Grab a loaf and up your PBJ game a level or two.