A customers enjoys pastries at Tous Les Jours bakery in HCMC’s District 1

A Korean company expands its French café-bakeries in Saigon.

Many customers come to Tous Les Jours, which means “Everyday,” to sip traditional Swiss coffee with afternoon cakes or for an early morning breakfast.

Some find private nooks under the zelkova tree outside to unwind after a day of work.

General manager of CJ Vietnam Nam Young Hyun said Tous Les Jours has a “fresh rule.”

All pastries are sold on the same day they are baked, and no leftovers are served the next day.

“At the end of the day, we give our leftovers to orphanages, charities or pagodas, no matter how many pastries we have left,” says Nam.

Nam says that 20 percent or more of Tous Les Jours Vietnam’s customers are foreigners, not including Koreans.

After the first bakery opened on Ho Chi Minh City’s 180 Hai Ba Trung Street, District 1 in 2007, Tous Les Jours opened up shops in Diamond Plaza and another District 1 outlet at 59 Tran Hung Dao Street in 2008.

This year, Tous Les Jours plans to double the number of outlets it operates here, all in downtown HCMC.

Reported by Kim