Panera Bread

[woodburner]

Self Ordering/Self pick-up/Self dispose

Just another fast food place I guess, causual but a bit more homey than most churn out the food, joints.

Lunch for two, which included soup and sandwich was just over $20.00, no tipping since no one does anything for you.

woodburner

[FoodMan]

I do like their sandwiches and breads for a quick lunch, and I usually stop by to pick up a coffee refill in the morning. However, stay away from their muffins. I honestly cannot figure out how someone can make muffins so bad. they are rubbery, chewy and have no flavor.

Woodburner, can you elaborate a little bit about your original post? Are asking for an opinion or simply stating a report?

Elie

[woodburner]

I do like their sandwiches and breads for a quick lunch, and I usually stop by to pick up a coffee refill in the morning. However, stay away from their muffins. I honestly cannot figure out how someone can make muffins so bad. they are rubbery, chewy and have no flavor.

Woodburner, can you elaborate a little bit about your original post? Are asking for an opinion or simply stating a report?

Elie

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I was simply stating my thoughts on the restaurant itself.

I find it a bad day, when I stop in for lunch at a place that trades on the NASDAQ.

The food was acceptable, actually pretty good. At the same time, I've watched artisinal bakeries, "bit the shit" while places like this pop up like lego buildings.

Opinions are always accepted, just like donations.

woodburner

[RETREVR]

Depends on how you look at it. Used to be that the only chains were like taco bell and mcdonalds. In that light, they are an incredible improvement.

If you compare it to an artisnal bakery, of course you will be disapointed. Call Ralph Nader. Or feel free to compete if you can do better.

[woodburner]

Depends on how you look at it.  Used to be that the only chains were like taco bell and mcdonalds.  In that light, they are an incredible improvement.

If you compare it to an artisnal bakery, of course you will be disapointed. Call Ralph Nader.  Or feel free to compete if you can do better.

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I agree, regarding the improvement in food, over McDonalds at about twice the cost though.

But the lack of service, and sitting on top of other diners needs some work.

For instance, upon arrival you are funneled through the dining area, straight to the ordering cashier station, where the perky young girl asked if she could take my order? Ok so far.

We ordered our sandwiches and a cup of soup each, and ordered a couple of sodas, by the way, aside from the usual fill your own cup service, they offer Jones Soda, in a few flavors and of course flavored coffees.

After paying for our order, I was given a "black box" about 6" square and 2 inches thick. I inquired what the box was for and the perky girl responded that when our order was ready, it would light up and vibrate. Nice touch, I thought.

Finding a table for two after our soda's were poured, was not so easy, as it was middle of noon time lunch hour, but luckily one was opening just as we were finding our way through the dining area.

The table was maybe 30" wide by 40" deep, I'm guessing here, but very small, with maybe two feet separating tables on each side of ours. In other words, tables on each side of you could certainly hear having a conversation with your companion, as you could hear their conversations as well.

Just as we sat down, our vibrator went off. and off I went to the pick-up station.

Here is where things get crazy. As I arrive at the pickup area, some other customers are milling around, and touching the various plates of food on the counter looking for their order. Now there are eight trays of food up on the counter, some containing just soup, some soup and sandwiches, and some just sandwiches. I was fairly quick to ascertain which plates were ours, but the problem is four cafeteria trays, and I've only got two hands. I picked up our sandwich trays after one of the other customers got done handling my tray, and headed back to our table.

Seems like the thoughtful staff could figure out a way to put the soup and sandwich on one tray, to save the diner an extra trip.

Four trays did not fit on the two-person table, so after arriving back at the table with the soup, I had to dispose of two empty trays, to give us enough room on the table.

Seemed like way too much futzing around for two people out to lunch. I'd much rather tip a waitress, but Panera Bread would rather cut back on the help, and give the money to their stockholders.

woodburner

[Toasted]

Woodburner- I think it depends on where you go and at what time. I happen to like Panera Bread because our experience in our local site has been quick and consistant in terms of the food quality. I like that they have fresh lemon slices for sodas and ice tea and also to squeeze in the black bean soup that I always order. I stay away from their muffins and some of the bagels but for the most part, I'm happy with the food and the service.

[woodburner]

Woodburner- I think it depends on where you go and at what time.  I happen to like Panera Bread because our experience in our local site has been quick and consistant in terms of the food quality.  I like that they have fresh lemon slices for sodas and ice tea and also to squeeze in the black bean soup that I always order.  I stay away from their muffins and some of the bagels but for the most part, I'm happy with the food and the service.

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Melissa,

I understand your comments, as my wife would concur with you. My other concern which I did not mention in previous posts was that my soup was stone cold.

Problem number 1 is, with no waitress I need to return my soup to the cooking area and ask for a reheat, leaving my wife to dine alone while this situation is aleviated, I chose not to leave her and not complain only to leave a full bowl of soup for waste.

No server leaves a lot of room for error and inconvienience in my book.

woodburner

[RETREVR]

Seems like it doesn't fit your expectations. Now that you know what to expect, you may avoid it all together, or try it for a late lunch. For someone that wants a decent, fairly quick lunch but doesn't want McDonalds, it seems like a good fit. When I am on the go I will avoid sit-down full service places because I don't want the hassle.

Twenty dollars won't buy lunch for two at decent sitdown restaurant, and that is before tip. Furthermore, the lunch waitsfaff at a cheap sit-down joint is usually so inept that you would do better to serve yourself. Diners can be the exception.

Now, maybe they should have an expeditor to sort out the orders. Or maybe they should have food runners instead of full service wait staff.

There is a trendy pizza joint in town that has runners only. It works, but we were very confused the first time we ate there. We go in and sit down. We had no idea that you had to order at the end of the bar. No big deal. Someone needed to tell us how it worked. The problem was nobody said anything. After sitting there for ten minutes without anybody making contact, we left.

I understand your frustration.

Side note:

Sometimes we get bread from panera for caterings when we are low on stock, or don't have time to bake. We ordered ten bagetts from them to be picked up the following morning. At the time of pick-up, they gave us no less than fifty loaves and only charged us for ten. Our employee informed them of their mistake. They replied that everything was in order. After loading up, our employee went back in and tried again to explain that they had charged for ten and gave us fifty. The manager insisted that everything was in order. This was not day-old. Go figure.

[woodburner]

Seems like it doesn't fit your expectations.  Now that you know what to expect, you may avoid it all together, or try it for a late lunch.  For someone that wants a decent, fairly quick lunch but doesn't want McDonalds, it seems like a good fit. When I am on the go I will avoid sit-down full service places because I don't want the hassle.

Twenty dollars won't buy lunch for two at decent sitdown restaurant, and that is before tip.  Furthermore, the lunch waitsfaff at a cheap sit-down joint is usually so inept that you would do better to serve yourself.  Diners can be the exception.

Now, maybe they should have an expeditor to sort out the orders.  Or maybe they should have food runners instead of full service wait staff. 

There is a trendy pizza joint in town that has runners only.  It works, but we were very confused the first time we ate there.  We go in and sit down.  We had no idea that you had to order at the end of the bar.  No big deal.  Someone needed to tell us how it worked.  The problem was nobody said anything.  After sitting there for ten minutes without anybody making contact, we left. 

I understand your frustration.

Side note:

Sometimes we get bread from panera for caterings when we are low on stock, or don't have time to bake.  We ordered ten bagetts from them to be picked up the following morning.  At the time of pick-up, they gave us no less than fifty loaves and only charged us for ten.  Our employee informed them of their mistake.  They replied that everything was in order.  After loading up, our employee went back in and tried again to explain that they had charged for ten and gave us fifty.  The manager insisted that everything was in order.  This was not day-old.  Go figure.

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Thanks for the response.

Trust me, I was not frustrated to say the least, I know and understand patience.

The food was good, as I stated earlier, but if you look at my original entry note on the "shape of things to come" it may shed some light.

This may sound odd, but it's my observation that Panera Bread is using the Home Depot business plan.

Great things at great prices, expect little or no service.

woodburner

[joiei]

From what I have been told, Panera is a bakery where no flour hits the floor. Their breads all taste pretty much the same to me as do their pastries. I go if someone wants to, but I pass them by to my local coffee shop which is way better.

[daniellewiley]

I actually go to Panera quite a bit. It is very close to my daughter's pre-school and they have free WiFi, so I can have a snack or drink, or even breakfast or lunch while doing work or surfing eGullet, and waiting until pick up time.

Last week I went for breakfast and loved what I got. It was only $.57 too! A slice of 7 grain, toasted with butter. Much better than their bagels, which are really rolls, and just piss me off.

For lunch, I like the roast beef on asiago bread with horseradish sauce. Not bad at all.

[woodburner]

From what I have been told, Panera is a bakery where no flour hits the floor.  Their  breads all taste pretty much the same to me as do their pastries.  I go if someone wants to, but I pass them by to my local coffee shop which is way better.

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All of the bread at least, is made off premises with all purpose flour and shipped to the individual locations, in refrigerated trucks, to be baked in the panera ovens.

I checked Monster.com for job openings for bakers, and the leader by far is Panera bread. Imagine that, looking for bakers, or a better word would be factory workers like McDonalds employees.

Insanity

woodburner

[Susan in FL]

The Panera near us is quite good, and better than most local bakeries. Of course, that's not saying all that much in the Daytona Beach area.

[birder53]

We've had lunch twice at Panera's. It wasn't bad, it was certainly better than McDonalds. It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be. I actually prefer Subway!

[ghostrider]

Never been.

There's a local chain in St. Louis called St. Louis Bread Co., which seems to be the same concept, probably better executed from the sound of the posts above. I don't know if they pre-date Panera but they were in business 3-4 years before I'd ever seen a Panera. I hope StL Bread survives, that Home Depot/Walmart biz plan thing just grates in my craw.

[FlourPower]

There's a local chain in St. Louis called St. Louis Bread Co., which seems to be the same concept, probably better executed from the sound of the posts above.  I don't know if they pre-date Panera but they were in business 3-4 years before I'd ever seen a Panera.  I hope StL Bread survives, that Home Depot/Walmart biz plan thing just grates in my craw.

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My understanding is that the St. Louis Bread Company was the beginning of Panera -- they just expanded the concept and it's owned/run by the same people.

A Panera opened about five minutes away from us (we're a small neighborhood bakery but we don't do bread) and it hasn't made a dent in our business. Customers have told us our pastries and muffins are light years better than Panera's. So that's nice.

The food's not bad but the service is horrific every time I've gone into one. I know how hard it is to find an employee with opposable thumbs who can show up on time but good God. Someone's been whizzing in the gene pool.

[NulloModo]

I see the problem with these places being that they operate in a very small niche in the market.

If you want cheap food fast, you have McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, etc all ready to serve you.

If you want good food fast, and are willing to pay a little more, you have almost any ethnic take-out joint, any local sub/steak shop, and etc.

If you want good food cheap and can wait a bit, you have a number of decent diners still laying about the country.

This Panera Bread seems to be more expensive than your typical diner, where you can usually get a 'lunch special' or an 'early bird dinner special' that includes a soup or salad, veggie, entree, and dessert all for $7 or $8, throw in a couple bucks for tip and you are just below or right at the price of Panera, and you don't have to serve yourself (if just two sandwiches and two bowls of soup was $20, this also seems much higher than your averge sub/steak shop, some of which build absolutely incredible sandwiches).

I just don't see the draw in expensive fast food.

[chile_peppa]

The food's not bad but the service is horrific every time I've gone into one.

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Ditto. There's a Panera within walking distance of my house. I tried it when they first opened, but I will never be back again. My niece wanted a plain buttered bagel, not cream cheese, not sandwich. Unfortunately, it wasn't on the menu, and though they had all the ingredients, the "special order" apparently upset the staff so much that it took 10 minutes of explaining and half an hour of preparation before the bloody thing arrived at the pickup window. I felt like Jack Nicholson in "Five Easy Pieces," trying to order toast.

[ghostrider]

My understanding is that the St. Louis Bread Company was the beginning of Panera -- they just expanded the concept and it's owned/run by the same people.

A Panera opened about five minutes away from us (we're a small neighborhood bakery but we don't do bread) and it hasn't made a dent in our business. Customers have told us our pastries and muffins are light years better than Panera's. So that's nice.

The food's not bad but the service is horrific every time I've gone into one. I know how hard it is to find an employee with opposable thumbs who can show up on time but good God. Someone's been whizzing in the gene pool.

←

Fascinating, I did not know that! I don't get back to St Louis all that often. My mom loves the original chain & always took us there once or twice during a visit. I thought their sandwiches were decent & reasonably priced - that seems to have changed a bit from posts above.

As with most things, seems that once you try to standardize it & then expand it, the quality of the experience suffers.

Glad your customers are sticking with you!

[FlourPower]

My understanding is that the St. Louis Bread Company was the beginning of Panera -- they just expanded the concept and it's owned/run by the same people.

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Fascinating, I did not know that! I don't get back to St Louis all that often. My mom loves the original chain & always took us there once or twice during a visit. I thought their sandwiches were decent & reasonably priced - that seems to have changed a bit from posts above.

As with most things, seems that once you try to standardize it & then expand it, the quality of the experience suffers.

←

My wife is from St. Louis and the last time we were there we went to the St. Louis Bread Company. I don't remember exactly what we ate -- some type of paninis -- but they showed up on the Panera menu about a year later. Maybe they've hung onto them to use as an incubator for new menu items without using the Panera name.

The food there was much better and fresher than Panera. It's been a couple years since I've been there (oh how I miss Ted Drewe's!!) so it's possible that things have changed.

[ghostrider]

My understanding is that the St. Louis Bread Company was the beginning of Panera -- they just expanded the concept and it's owned/run by the same people.

←

Fascinating, I did not know that! I don't get back to St Louis all that often. My mom loves the original chain & always took us there once or twice during a visit. I thought their sandwiches were decent & reasonably priced - that seems to have changed a bit from posts above.

As with most things, seems that once you try to standardize it & then expand it, the quality of the experience suffers.

←

My wife is from St. Louis and the last time we were there we went to the St. Louis Bread Company. I don't remember exactly what we ate -- some type of paninis -- but they showed up on the Panera menu about a year later. Maybe they've hung onto them to use as an incubator for new menu items without using the Panera name.

The food there was much better and fresher than Panera. It's been a couple years since I've been there (oh how I miss Ted Drewe's!!) so it's possible that things have changed.

←

The one we went to, somewhere near Webster Groves, had a corner with comfy chairs & tables that was basically a little Internet cafe within the larger premises.

I guess Panera isn't rolling out that concept nationwide. It sure pulled in the customers in that part of suburban StL though.

[Kim WB]

Paneera in NJ is a franchise, not a chain. I find their food bland and their salads blah, but I do like to order thier bread soup bowls...recently made a batch of eggplant chorizo soup that was wonderful in the scooped out bowls.

[woodburner]

I bounced the Panera bread question off of about 10 of my non-food customers today at work. I'll be damned that each one of them loved the food and the restaurant.

This is how the website reads reagarding the company overview:

The Panera Bread legacy began in 1981 as Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. Founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich, the company prospered along the east coast of the United States and internationally throughout the 1980s and 1990s and became the dominant operator within the bakery-cafe category.

In 1993, Au Bon Pain Co., Inc. purchased Saint Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery-cafes located in the St. Louis area. The company then managed a comprehensive re-staging of Saint Louis Bread Co. Between 1993 and 1997 average unit volumes increased by 75%. Ultimately the concept's name was changed to Panera Bread.

By 1997, it was clear that Panera Bread had the potential to become one of the leading brands in the nation. In order for Panera Bread to reach its potential, it would require all of the company's financial and management resources.

In May 1999, all of Au Bon Pain Co., Inc.'s business units were sold, with the exception of Panera Bread, and the company was renamed Panera Bread. Since those transactions were completed, the company's stock has grown thirteen-fold and over $1 billion in shareholder value has been created. Panera Bread has been recognized as one of Business Week's "100 Hot Growth Companies".

Today, there are over 665 Panera Bread bakery-cafes in 35 states delivering fresh, authentic artisan bread on a national scale.

Panera history

Some, at least the one location I encountered was WIFI.

woodburner

Edited November 15, 2004 by woodburner (log)

[Behemoth]

It gets a huge amount of business here, people really seem to love it. I find the bread too squishy and undercrusted and they put way too much gloppy stuff on the salads and sandwiches. Asking for dressing on the side got me funny looks. And the coffee is too weak. The soups aren't bad, assuming they warm them enough. And yet, if I need a "bagel" and coffee within walking distance from my department, I do end up going there. Meh.

(There are far better bakeries in my area, but not within walking distance from work. If we could only convince mirabelle bakery to open a stand in the basement of Altgeld hall...sigh.)

[mrsadm]

I just don't see the draw in expensive fast food.

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Interesting you should say this, because I have read recently that these upscale fast food places are the up and coming trend in restaurants. They are supposed to provide better quality food than McD's with fast service. These chains seem to be where the investment money in chain restaurants is going.

I haven't been to one of these places yet but with all that "self-service" it reminds me of a cafeteria!