Panera Bread — Restaurant in Cambridge

I’ve never felt do discriminated against in my life. I am writing to share a troubling experience I had today with a manager, Brenda, at the Panera Bread located at 5 White Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I have been a regular customer at this location, visiting at least twice a month for over a year, but I have repeatedly encountered what I feel is aggressive and inappropriate behavior from Brenda. Here are a few specific instances that have caused me concern:

Order Issues: There have been several occasions where my regular order, a Chipotle Avocado Melt, has mistakenly been entered as a BLT. When I attempted to address this error, Brenda responded in a way that suggested the mistake was mine rather than an oversight on the part of the staff. I felt unfairly blamed in each instance.

Drink Exchange Incident: A few weeks ago, I ordered a large drink but then realized I had meant to order the Blueberry Lavender option. I informed Brenda and offered to pay the difference. She responded by saying, “You knew what drink it was, you come here all the time.” Although I let this comment go, it made me uncomfortable.

Incident on November 5: Today, I stopped by to use the restroom and then returned to place my order. As a family ahead of me was placing a large order, I politely asked Brenda if someone could take my order as I was short on time. She responded, “No, you can wait; you just got here.” When I explained that I needed assistance due to time constraints, she said, “You can help yourself; we’re just sitting back here doing nothing.” Her tone and attitude shocked me, and I felt compelled to record the interaction for documentation. Brenda proceeded to tell me, “you don't sign my checks,” I had to question, I need to sign your checks to get service? Upon realizing I was recording, Brenda refused to serve me. I then requested that the authorities be called. When the police arrived, she misrepresented the situation, claiming I was screaming and had been involved in multiple prior incidents, which was untrue.

I am sharing this because I felt extremely uncomfortable and concerned by Brenda’s behavior, not only in her interactions with me but also in the way she conducted herself in front of other staff and customers. Her actions seemed discriminatory and unprofessional, and I am requesting an investigation into her conduct to address what I feel has been ongoing prejudice.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I would appreciate any follow-up regarding steps being taken to ensure a respectful environment for...

Extremely racist, creepy, cult-ish staff here. They watch customers, who are mostly minding their own business, like hawks and gossip about them continuously like they are personal acquaintances and not patrons who are complete strangers just trying to eat and drink the stuff they’ve purchased. Instead, the employees could be doing — I don't know — their jobs, such as cleaning properly, not playing games with customers’ orders, and resisting their overwhelming urge to be all up in customers' business. They even go so far as to engage in beyond-weird, petty, passive-aggressive nonsense to get a rise/reaction out of certain customers, such as convincing the strip mall security people/cop to waste their time lingering in customers' vicinity to intimidate them, or removing items from the self-service area they think you might want if you make it on their Super Special List of customers there to consume foodstuff and mind their own business, not be their BFF or lover. Today took the cake when I had the audacity to screw the crooked lid on the creamer container properly so it wouldn't leak while pouring. Like lightning, baldheaded dude appeared out of nowhere, grabbing all of the creamer containers, banging stuff around/down, and later, having the strip mall security guy hover nearby as I was preparing to leave. You cannot make this kind of craziness up. Because I'm not crazy myself, it took hours for it to dawn on me what the craziness was about: the staff is so weird, they think everyone else is too, so baldheaded dude jumped to the crazy conclusion that I was tampering with the creamer IN FULL VIEW in the crazy Panera Bread Porter Square location... where I stop for coffee or a drink pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY, for MONTHS now, because I have that Sip Club thing and most crazy doesn't bother me when it stays out of my face and personal space. You cannot make today's kind of crazy up, though, which is simultaneously sad and hilarious. Forewarned is forearmed, present and potential patrons. I am posting this much-needed review to forever memorialize my take on the crazy I had to endure today at this Panera Bread location, just in case the real cops ever have to get involved....

Todays update: I am updating my review to one star. I didn’t learn my lesson and ordered two breakfast sandwiches and a coffee using the app. The sausage in one sandwich was disgusting and off tasting. They still put 1/3 slice of cheese and today was a hard fried cold egg. Yuck. Threw that away after a bite. The other sandwich had the same measly cheese third, 1 slice of bacon torn into thirds (a theme) and another cold hard fried egg. Was not good but my friend ate it. Coffee was do it yourself and they no longer put signs with time brewed on each of the coffee urns and once I tasted it, I knew why. The coffee is hours old and barely warm! Hardly tasted like coffee. I am sure it’s hard for businesses with the increasing costs of supplies but if you skimp on quality and even serve rotten meat and old coffee, you may not be in business. This horror show cost nearly $17. Avoid at all costs.

3 years ago, I gave them 3 stars and said this: I want Panera to succeed as it allows one to sit and enjoy a coffee while working vs a McDonalds it replaced years ago who considered that loitering. Problem is food quality has declined over the years while prices continue to go up. I just had a ham, cheese, roasted tomato breakfast sandwich and I watched the nice staffer make it. It goes in their “oven” for 17 seconds. There is 1/3 slice of cheese so what’s the point, ham was discolored from being exposed to the air so gray ham is off putting- plus it was still cold as it was grabbed and clumped onto the sandwich, the egg was not runny but med hard yolk and did taste fresh, bread was not toasted so fell apart when I tried to pick it up. It was essentially inedible and it cost nearly $6. Coffee urns are marked with time made and at 1015am, some said they were brewed at 805am. Coffee price warrants fresher coffee. I gave it an extra star for letting me sit and work even though I couldn’t eat what I...