Panera Bread — Restaurant in Strongsville

This Panera has been outstandingly accepting of me as a transwoman, even on the days when I was too busy to shave. Intensely LGBTQ+ friendly, the queer community need not fear hanging out here.

Even without that, as a traveler who has used my coffee subscription to sip around America, this is definitely an above-average location, and I have spent so many hours here unwinding after work when I'm home for the summer. I'm pretty thankful they've put up with me, and I ask you to please tip well when you're here.

My favorites are the Lemon Drop Cookie, and the Mediterranean vegetarian sandwich. In the morning, I always order the Bacon Egg & Tomato Wrap, but substitute out the bacon for avocado; the tomato juice mixes with the sauce to be actually really delicious, and it powers me through my morning at work.

Their coffees are decent, and not too strong like Starbucks always is; but actually, their hot tea is excellent, and the biggest draw of the subscription plan. Fans of Uncle Iroh, rejoice for the hot leaf juice.

To be fair, a few areas where this location could use improvement are in keeping the parking lot tidy (in the dining room, cleanliness has never ever been an issue), and by making sure there is a dedicated cash tip jar for their hard-working employees, rather than donating the jar to charities (I already donate a portion of my income to charities of my own choice). I was also a bit disappointed when the old sugar-free cold tea options were abandoned for guarana lemonade madness, but I digress.

They're going to be mentioned in the credits for my novel, and my rom hack....

I walked into Panera Bread on Royalton Rd. On June 27th 2022, it was 7:36 pm and I was extremely tired. I walked in and tried to order at one of the kiosks and it said that basically everything was unavailable, so i had to use one of the registers. There was nobody at the register and I stood waiting for maybe five minutes before finally the blonde haired cute male manager told me that he would get someone to help me. Finally, a rather large female employee came to take my order. She seemed confused and needed help to take my very simple order, you pick two with a teriyaki bowl and bowl of french onion soup without the croutons. The cute male manager came back and finished taking my order and I winked at him. I went to sit down and waited for my food which felt like it took an eternity. I checked the time and it was 8:00 pm. At this point I was starting to get frustrated when the blonde haired manager called my name and apologized for my wait with a smile. We exchanged phone numbers and met up with each other at the Applebee's across the street after he got done. After having a few drinks, he took me home and I invited him inside and we had a magical night that I will never forget, ever. He left in the morning and hasn’t texted me back, its been two weeks and I missed my period. I never got his name. Terrible experience! I will not...

How do you mess up Turkey and cheese?? So first of all, I’m sad the blueberry bagels are gone. The “summer” menu is up and if ya want sweet it seems to only be able to be a choice between cinnamon raisin and cinnamon crunch. The Medium drink when handed to me was shocking. That looks like a small. Oh and worst thing of all- the kids meal. TURKEY AND CHEDDAR. Simple. Perfect for picky kid eaters! All I did was say I wanted it on white bread. I open it up to give To my child, and get fancy lettuce, ONIONS, TOMATO -‘and some kind of sauce. Uhm here’s the kicker!! NO CHEESE!!! And the sandwhich wasn’t cut in half! Just two thick pieces of bread with a mess of a wrong sandwhich! It really is overpriced hospital food. Sadly, I wanted to get my child something healthier and better out there than nuggets- and y’all...