Franchisee Stories
Stalled by market saturation in his sandwich franchise, Bret Alex Feaster turned a chance NYC discovery into a family venture with the bakery café franchise.
For Bret Alex Feaster, a trip to New York City with his wife, Shelby, turned into an unexpected business opportunity. He was already an experienced operator of eight Jimmy John’s locations, but Feaster had been casually searching for a new brand that could offer long-term growth potential in his market.
“For a couple of years, I had been looking for another opportunity,” he said. “I wanted to stay in our general area, but Jimmy John’s is a little bit tapped out with the number of locations because it had such a strong presence here already. So, I was looking for a brand that fit our culture and had great brand recognition but wasn’t yet in our area.”
The Feasters happened to discover Paris Baguette*, the global bakery café franchise, as a couple, and they went into business with the brand as a couple. And, better yet, they’re growing their “business family” by bringing in a circle of trusted partners to launch a multi-unit enterprise.
"We were staying downtown, and just around the corner from our hotel, there was a Paris Baguette," Bret said. "We had never heard of it before... We liked it so much that we ended up going back four more times... We were blown away by how good the food was."
That shared experience sparked an immediate decision.
"We were sitting there wondering if they franchised... I immediately sent an email to him expressing my interest," he said.
Of the dozen or so brands Bret had considered since thinking about expanding, he said Paris Baguette was the first to really get him excited.
“The company they’ve built, between culture and product, and the brand recognition being so strong worldwide — it was awesome,” he said.
From the beginning, the venture with Paris Baguette was a family business. Shelby made a significant career change to join Bret in the business full-time, transitioning away from her role as a full-time scientist at Zoetis to focus on marketing and administrative efforts for Paris Baguette.
Beyond this, though, the couple is also extending their family, in a way, bringing in multiple strategic partners. Caleb Keibert, who was an operations partner for Jimmy John's for eight years, joins Paris Baguette as an operations advisor. Summer Mencel, a district manager for Jimmy John’s, had always expressed interest in professional growth, and Bret brought her on in an operations capacity with Paris Baguette.
Another partner, Josh Nagel, was a unique addition to the team, largely driven by a strong history and deep friendship.
“He was my physical therapist,” Bret said. “He was not loving being a physical therapist anymore, and he had always wanted to own a business. I threw it out there to him.”
Nagel decided to take the leap, exit the physical therapy world, and join the Feasters’ Paris Baguette family. While he’ll start as the first general manager, Bret said he aims to support Nagel’s growth toward a head of operations role over time.
As the Feasters prepare to scale, Bret says he’s most excited for the opportunity to fill a genuine need in his community, bringing Paris Baguette to a community that has even published several articles calling out a desire for a new bakery café.
“I’m just so excited to bring that to them,” he said.
As a veteran franchisee, Bret’s advice to other potential franchisees is to “follow the systems and procedures to a tee.” Rather than reinventing the wheel, franchisees should leverage the support structures they bought into as a benefit of the franchise. This makes growth more manageable, and Bret said a similar approach applies to scaling with a team. Trusting the teams and operational structures you’ve put in place helps the business run more smoothly, allowing for stronger, longer-term growth.
"The more locations you build as a franchisee, the easier your job becomes because you can build more layers of management," Bret said. “I would always recommend trying to get to a minimum of four or five stores because you can then afford to pay more people to support your team.”
What began as a shared discovery for the Feasters in New York City has laid the foundation for a new kind of family business. While their growth plan is ambitious, their own partnership and the expansion of their carefully assembled “business family” will drive growth with Paris Baguette beyond just the expansion of a restaurant portfolio, creating a legacy and welcoming trusted partners into the family along the way.
For more information on families in franchising, check out these related stories on 1851 Franchise:
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