Café D’Avignon, New York’s fastest-growing local bakery and café known for their exquisite execution of French and American pastry classics, has signed its first franchise deal that will bring five locations to the greater Orlando area. The Florida outposts will be the concept’s first outside of New York, where Café D’Avignon currently operates a wholesale bakery and three retail locations, one within the prestigious Plaza Food Hall. Florida franchisees Alex Nikitin and Maxim Dreev have an aggressive growth strategy for the new locations, planning to open two Café D’Avignon outlets in the first year.
The partners have set their sights on opening at mass-gathering locations in busy neighborhoods. They’re actively looking for available space at airports, amusement parks, and high volume food halls, where they feel the fresh, simple, and ingredient-centric approach of the concept will be well received.
“It’s very exciting for us to be the first partners with Café D’Avignon, and also the first to expand the concept outside of New York,” says Operating Franchisee Alex Nikitin. “In a time where the coffeehouse market is saturated with big players, we think Café D’Avignon fills a need for high-quality, handmade breads and pastries served alongside coffee that is equally as good. They’ve experienced decades of success in one of the toughest markets in the country, New York City, so we have no doubt that Café D’Avignon will find prosperity in Florida.”
Café D’Avignon is partnered with Fransmart, the industry leading franchise development company behind the explosive growth of brands like Five Guys Burgers and Fries, The Halal Guys, and Qdoba Mexican Grill, as their exclusive franchise development partner to grow the brand. The concept is currently looking for experienced multi-unit foodservice operators to develop franchise territories in major markets.
The budding café was conceived from wholesale bakery Pain D’Avignon, which began in 1992 when five childhood friends emigrated from Yugoslavia with a shared dream of bringing traditional European bread making to the U.S.’s East Coast. Over the last 25 years, Pain D’Avignon has distributed bread and pastries to highly acclaimed hotels—namely The Plaza Hotel, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, among others—and Michelin-starred restaurants across New York City.
Café D’Avignon’s varietal menu features sweet and savory freshly baked pastries, breakfast and lunch sandwiches on homemade breads, classic French quiches, and a coffee program showcasing Stumptown Roasters. Their gourmet baked offerings, which are baked fresh throughout the day, present French classics, like croissants, pain au chocolat, and kouign-amann, alongside American favorites, such as sticky buns, smoked salmon sandwiches, roasted turkey clubs, and more. Ingredients are sourced from local purveyors to create wholesome, flavorful foods that are focused on the quality, not quantity, of ingredients used. Café D’Avignon’s mission is to create simple, natural, and high-quality
