A truck smashed through the wall of Fresh Baguette on Hungerford Drive. Credit: Via Pete Piringer

Florent de Felcourt was upstairs in a meeting at his Fresh Baguette bakery in Rockville when suddenly he heard a crash.

“The lady who was here at the counter shouted and asked me to come down immediately, and I couldn’t even figure out in my head what was happening,” said de Felcourt, the CEO of the local bakery chain. “I was amazed to see a car inside the store. It’s completely unexpected, but that’s what happened.”

Just before 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, a pickup truck crashed through the bakery storefront. The impact took out several windows and part of the brick wall below. No one was injured—the driver was unharmed and no customers were in the seating area struck by the truck.

As of Wednesday afternoon, de Felcourt said he didn’t know how much it would cost to repair the damage to the bakery, but contractors had built a temporary wall. The building inspector cleared the business to remain open, de Felcourt said, and he plans for tomorrow to be “a normal day” with deliveries and store pick-ups uninterrupted.

The Rockville bakery, at 804 Hungerford Dr., opened last summer. Fresh Baguette also has a Bethesda location.

Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service spokesman Pete Piringer said MCFRS crews and Rockville police responded to the scene. He said the truck appeared to have hit some ice in the parking lot.

Advertisement

“I talked to the driver, he said he saw a couple parking spots and went for it, and [the truck] just kept going,” Piringer said.

While de Felcourt said there was some ice in the parking lot, he noted the pavement didn’t seem too slippery and his delivery drivers had used the lot all morning.

After the crash, de Felcourt said he offered the driver a cup of coffee and took a picture with him.

Advertisement

“We made a joke, I told him, ‘You wanted to try the drive-through concept at Fresh Baguette,” he said.

“It was a way to relax after so much stress.”