Korean Bakery in Koreatown: Paris Baguette Opens at 6 am

Paris Baguette, at 6 West 32nd Street, New York NY 10001, opens at 6 am every day of the week, which makes it the earliest Korean bakery stop on the Koreatown block between Fifth Avenue and Broadway. The shop sits just west of Fifth Avenue on the short stretch locals call Korea Way, and the format is the one Seoul made famous: you pick up a tray and tongs, fill it from open shelves of cream breads, red bean buns and croquettes, then pay at the counter. Call (212) 244-0404 for cake orders.

The official store page lists Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 6 am to 11 pm, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 am to 12 am, and Sunday from 6 am to 11 pm. That schedule is the main reason this location works for two very different visits. At 6 am the shelves are being stocked for commuters coming up from Herald Square, and after dinner on a Friday the same room fills with people walking off a Korean barbecue meal down the block.

If the title promise is the 6 am opening, the payoff is simple. The first hour is when the bread racks are fullest and the line at the register is shortest, so you can take your time comparing fillings. By the 8 am office rush the queue moves fast but the tray picking gets crowded around the cream bread shelf. On Thursday through Saturday, the extra hour until midnight turns the shop into a late dessert stop rather than a breakfast one.

Paris Baguette began in South Korea in 1988, and its stores carry the Korean bakery habit of self-service. Grab a plastic tray and a pair of tongs from the stack near the door, walk the shelves, and pick individually wrapped or open pastries yourself. Drinks, cake slices from the refrigerated case and whole cakes are handled by staff at the counter, so keep your tray for bread and order everything else when you pay.

A small etiquette point matters here. Use the tongs for anything unwrapped, never your hands, and put a pastry back only if you have not touched it. The staff at the register will box or bag the tray for you and can warm savory items like croquettes if you ask. If you are buying for a group, a second tray keeps the cream buns from getting squashed under heavier sausage breads.

The Korean side of the menu is where this bakery separates itself from a regular Midtown coffee shop. Start with the Sticky Milk Buns, the Choux Cream Bread and the Butter Cream Bread, which are the soft, sweet breads Korean bakeries are known for. Whole Red Bean Bread and the Sweet Rice Red Bean Puff are the classics for anyone who grew up with bakeries in Seoul, and the Sweet Potato Bread is the quiet favorite of autumn.

For something savory, the Smoked Sausage Bread, Curry Croquette and Crab Meat Croquette all appear on the official menu, as does the Hash Brown Bread with Ham and Cheese. The Peanut Crumb Bread and Walnut Cream Bread fill out the nutty end of the shelf. One pastry from each group, sweet cream, red bean and a croquette, gives a fair picture of the range without leaving you with a bag of leftovers by noon.

The fried and filled section is worth a slow look. The menu lists a Croissant Donut, a King Cream Donut, a Strawberry Mochi Donut and the Twisted Donut, which is the chewy Korean style twist rolled in sugar. In the refrigerated case, Honey Castella and plain Castella sit next to roll cakes such as the Green Tea Roll Cake and the Signature Roll Cake, all light sponge cakes that travel well in a tote bag.

The Strawberry Soft Cream Cake Slice is the item most first timers leave with, vanilla cake filled with soft cream and strawberries and topped with a whole berry. Whole cakes in the regular lineup, like the Strawberry Matcha Cake and the Chocolate Mathilde Cake, carry a 24-hour lead time on the official menu, so order a day ahead for a birthday instead of hoping one is in the case.

Coffee here is Lavazza, and the Korean Iced Milk Coffee is the drink that matches the bread best, sweet and milky without the weight of a frappe. For fall the brand has added a Mirrorball Iced Croissant Latte, which mixes croissant flavor with espresso and milk and comes with a mini croissant. The seasonal cake list runs to a Vanilla Scream Ghost Cake, a Dirt and Worms Chocolate Chiffon Cake and a Caramel Apple Streusel Trifle.

An honest call: skip the sandwiches and wraps if you are here for one visit. The Turkey Avocado Sandwich and Chicken Caesar Wrap are fine, but they are the same grab and go lunch you can find on every Midtown corner. Spend the stomach space on two cream breads and a castella slice instead, since those are the items that explain why people search for a Korean bakery in the first place.

Weekday mornings before 8 am and the mid afternoon stretch between 2 pm and 4 pm are the calmest times. The longest lines tend to come after dinner on Friday and Saturday, when the Koreatown restaurants on 32nd Street empty out and groups drift in for cake and iced drinks. If the register line runs out the door, browse first and fill your tray, since the queue moves quicker than it looks.

If you need a backup, Paris Baguette runs other Manhattan stores within a short walk, including one on Sixth Avenue near Herald Square and one on Seventh Avenue near Penn Station, both listed on the official store locator. For a different style of bakery entirely, the Koreatown blocks have several Korean dessert cafes within a few minutes on foot, and the Karpo APP can point you to one that is open at the hour you are walking past.

The closest station is 34th Street to Herald Square, served by the B, D, F, M, N, Q, R and W trains, about a five minute walk. Exit toward Broadway, head south to 32nd Street and walk east toward Fifth Avenue. The Empire State Building rises one block to the northeast, which is an easy landmark if your map is slow to load between the tall buildings.

After the bakery, the natural route runs west along 32nd Street through the heart of Koreatown, past the barbecue restaurants, karaoke signs and late night cafes stacked several floors up. Keep going to Greeley Square Park at Broadway and Sixth Avenue for a bench, or walk north on Fifth Avenue to see the Empire State Building lobby. A bag of milk buns makes a good snack for either walk.

The address to save is 6 West 32nd Street, New York NY 10001, and the store phone is (212) 244-0404. Online ordering lists this shop as 32nd and 5th, which is useful for pickup on a busy morning. Whole cakes on the official menu need 24 hours of notice. The hours are 6 am to 11 pm Sunday through Wednesday and 6 am to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Bring a tote if you plan to buy several breads, since the soft cream items crush easily in a paper bag. The shop is a quick stop rather than a long sit down, so plan to eat your pastries on the walk or at a nearby park bench. If you are building a full Koreatown day, ask the Karpo APP for a barbecue spot nearby and save the bakery for dessert.