Panera Bread — Restaurant in Maryland

Panera began in 1980 as a single, 400-square-foot cookie store in Boston, Massachusetts, and is now a leading restaurant brand with more than 2,300 bakery-cafes in the United States and Canada, 140,000 associates and annual systemwide sales in the billions.

Their success has been fueled by one thing: their unending desire to bring to life fresh ideas about living and eating well. They want their guests to know the joys of great food served by people who truly care. They want them to have the food they crave, when they want it, how they want it, where they want it. They have never stopped innovating to do just that.

In the early days, founder Ron Shaich, expanded his cookie business by partnering with the late Louis Kane in a small French bakery chain called Au Bon Pain. The pair soon discovered that croissants laden with upscale ingredients like Boursin cheese and fresh roast beef were crowd pleasers and the bakery became a bakery-cafe. In 1991, Au Bon Pain Co. Inc. became publicly traded and in following years opened hundreds of bakery-cafes in cities along the East Coast and overseas.

In 1993, Au Bon Pain acquired the St. Louis Bread Company, the brainchild of entrepreneur Ken Rosenthal. Ken had fallen in love with sourdough bread during a trip to San Francisco and, in 1987, opened his first bread bakery in his native St. Louis. The St. Louis Bread Company’s sourdough bread was wildly popular and Ron saw that the concept had the potential to be embraced nationwide.

In the mid-1990s, Ron and his team recognized that consumers were hungry for more than food at reasonable prices – they wanted an eating experience that made them feel good about their choices and themselves. They reconceived the St. Louis Bread Company concept and named it Panera, a combination of the Italian words for bread (pane) and time (era). Panera became a leader in the burgeoning fast-casual restaurant segment. In 1999, all Au Bon Pain divisions were sold to an investment firm so resources could be directed toward growing Panera. The remaining public company was renamed Panera Bread Company.

Their focus on elevating the guest experience intensified in the 2000s. They rolled out free WiFi and design touches like fireplaces that encouraged guests to linger. They set new industry standards for food quality, wellness and transparency by introducing chicken raised without antibiotics, eliminating all non-naturally occurring trans fats from their foods and voluntarily disclosing calories on their menus. By the end of the decade, Panera had nearly 1,500 bakery-cafes.

More recently, their team has turned its attention to the growing demand for more healthful craft food options available through a variety of convenient channels. Today, Panera is leading the industry in clean food, digital sales, loyalty, delivery and catering. They opened their 2,000th cafe in 2016 and they are not slowing down.

Now privately held by JAB Holding Company, Panera is poised to continue innovating. They are taking their fresh ideas about eating and living well to more people in more places. Their Panera At Home products can be found at select grocery stores nationwide and they are expanding into new territories with...

Their food as a company is fine albeit overpriced in my humble opinion. However, my review is specific to this location and my service experience. They goofed on the order. Understandable. Things happen. The standard trite apology and a replacement or refund would suffice. Not here. The first young lady seems new so she gets a pass. I brought the incorrect sandwich with receipt and she silently backs away like I have a contagious disease. It was awkwardly uncomfortable. Mind you on their receipt it says 'accuracy matters, please let us know if your order is wrong'. She finally has a manager take over, Rhona. Rhona proceeds to 'educate' me on how I should have ordered the sandwich so that it would have been made correctly. The receipt read "no steak". Where is the ambiguity? She then gives me a store credit with no apology. I had to wait on a long line to have the issue addressed and come back to the store which is out the way. Not her fault, but it wasn't my fault as a customer that the employees goofed up the order. I wasn't looking for a handout. A simple sincere apology would have sufficed. Please address your customer service at this location Panera. McDonald's across the street from is doing better and doesn't charge...

Update 2023-09-11 (to add orange scone and cinnamon roll)

You're lucky you're reading this message:

I eat here a lot so I know some of what's good and some of what's not. ( I like to sequester myself here to force myself to study)

It is very easy to spend a lot of money here and a lot of it is not even as good as pre-packaged food from the grocery store.

Probably the best item on the menu in terms of tasting good, not easy to make yourself, Is healthy, And the ingredients cost more (so you are getting value) Is the summer 10 vegetable soup.

Rubric ★ much worse than I expected ★★ worse than I expected ★★★ what I expected. ★★★★ better than expected ★★★★★much better than I expected

★★★★ Roasted Turkey & Avocado BLT ★★★ Cinnamon Roll ★★★★★ Orange Scone (this is the best dessert bakery item I have had at Panera) ★★ Mac n Cheese ★★squash soup (too sweet you might like it if that does not bother you) ★★ chicken noodle soup ★★ chicken chipotle pizza ★★★ other pizza ★★★ french onion soup ★★★★ thai chicken soup ★★★★ chipotle chicken avocado melt ★★★★★ Summer 10 vegetable soup

Im going ro...