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Do You Still Eat At Panera Bread?

Wes

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When I first moved to the Atlanta area Panera was one of my favorite places. My family would go there all the time when I was a kid and any time family was visiting we'd inevitably all go out to Panera together. When I started living with my wife we used to drive over 10 miles to go to the closest one, and I was so excited when they built one closer to me. But in the last 10-15 years, I started going less and less and now I almost never go. This boiled down to two main things:
  1. The menu keeps changing and everything I loved is now gone
  2. The prices are kind of high
The first item is the worst for me. Over the years, the ENTIRETY of the items I loved have simply disappeared, including:
  • IC Mocha Almond (it was a sort of frappucino shake)
  • Bistro Steak Salad
  • Turkey Artichoke Panini
  • Sierra Chicken Sandwich
  • Spinach Souffle
  • Asiago Cheese Bagel
  • Brioche Roll
  • Pecan roll
  • Shortbread cookie (nonfrosted)
I remember there used to be a display of baked goods in the front and I'd always get one, and I remember when they took the shelves out of it because there were so few to choose from.

I also noticed my workplaces stopped ordering big orders of bagels and breads from Panera like they used for for special events.

Do you guys feel the same way? Or did you always just dismiss it as bougie hospital food in the first place?

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I can't say I've ever heard of PANERA BREAD, but I know the feeling of beloved restaurant (chains) changing and - in so doing - losing in the things I valued/loved about them.
 
Got a few around where I'm at and I'd have to agree with Wes. The quality flexes, never in a good way either. I am almost intrigued in a horrified way to see where it's at in ten years time.
 
Panera was never really big on the West Coast, and only really popped up here in the last 10-15 years. Coincidentally the time period you've said it has degraded in quality. Maybe it has to do with some kind of corporate expansion making the old ones worse while introducing more restaurants across the country?

Went twice and the sandwich was good both times, but it sort of struck me as a fast food place intended for office workers to go on their lunch break as an alternative to getting McDonalds or burgers.
 
Nakshatra said:
Got a few around where I'm at and I'd have to agree with Wes. The quality flexes, never in a good way either. I am almost intrigued in a horrified way to see where it's at in ten years time.
Click to expand...
I think it'll end up like Boston Market, a place with rather decent food (rotisserie chicken, great meatloaf, and the spinach casserole and yellow squash were faves) that once had a loyal consumer base yet is all but gone due to mismanagement. And the thing is you'd like a place like Boston Market would do great in the Doordash era except that it has real competition from Golden Corral which offers similar foods (again with the meatloaf!). The sad thing is my town doesn't have any real non-grocery-store bakeries other than a handful of Mexican ones that mainly make pastries, so it was a great place to get fancy bread and they seem to have mostly lost the bread/bakery element that makes their name in favor of slowly turning into basically a salad shop for people who tell themselves that salads with that many toppings are still healthy (lol).

Also, I didn't mention this before but what the hell is with that Panera lemonade? Why is Panera's Lemonade basically a Rip-It?
  • 16 oz Can of Rip-It energy drink: 160mg of caffeine
  • 30 oz large size drink cup of Panera charged lemonade: 390 mg of caffeine
I have never understood the appeal.

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Wes said:
I think it'll end up like Boston Market, a place with rather decent food (rotisserie chicken, great meatloaf, and the spinach casserole and yellow squash were faves) that once had a loyal consumer base yet is all but gone due to mismanagement. And the thing is you'd like a place like Boston Market would do great in the Doordash era except that it has real competition from Golden Corral which offers similar foods (again with the meatloaf!). The sad thing is my town doesn't have any real non-grocery-store bakeries other than a handful of Mexican ones that mainly make pastries, so it was a great place to get fancy bread and they seem to have mostly lost the bread/bakery element that makes their name in favor of slowly turning into basically a salad shop for people who tell themselves that salads with that many toppings are still healthy (lol).

Also, I didn't mention this before but what the hell is with that Panera lemonade? Why is Panera's Lemonade basically a Rip-It?
  • 16 oz Can of Rip-It energy drink: 160mg of caffeine
  • 30 oz large size drink cup of Panera charged lemonade: 390 mg of caffeine
I have never understood the appeal.

View attachment 22186View attachment 22185
Click to expand...
Those charged lemonades used to be my go to for long drives or nights when I had classes! Saw the article and was just.....stunned. Goodness.....now I want to make a meatloaf. As one of the people who used to get the salads with a menagerie of toppings they definitely are not healthy for you 🤣
 
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