Panera began in 1987 as St. Louis Bread Company, a humble community bakery founded with a sourdough starter from San Francisco and a dream of putting a loaf of bread in every arm.
Panera Bread Company is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri , a suburb of St. Louis .
This brand shall also be fondly remembered for starting a series of “Panera Cares Community Cafes”, strategically located in low-income areas where people can pay for food whatever is within their limits. These centers serve around 1 million people annually and are self-sustained in nature.
One of the biggest menu sections at Panera Bread is the soup. The chain restaurant offers everything from chicken noodle soup to vegetable soups and so much more. But as tasty, warm, and comforting as a bowl of soup might sound, at Panera, they’re not exactly fresh or healthy.
What is the best thing to get at Panera Bread?
Here’s what the employees had to say: The steak and arugula sandwich. JG M./Yelp. The squash soup. Steven H./Yelp. The chipotle chicken avocado melt. Nadia D./Yelp. The broccoli cheddar soup. Mac and cheese mixed in with turkey chili. The modern caprese sandwich. The summer corn chowder. A modified strawberry poppyseed salad.
The food is made with clean ingredients Panera Bread has always been at the forefront of the healthy eating options. It was the first to start listing calorie counts on menus. It also eliminated all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives from its foods in 2017.
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.
10 Fast-Food Restaurants That Serve Healthy Foods Chipotle. Chipotle Mexican Grill is a restaurant chain that specializes in foods like tacos and burritos. Chick-fil-A. Chick-fil-A is a fast-food restaurant that specializes in chicken sandwiches. Wendy’s. McDonald’s. Ruby Tuesday. The Cheesecake Factory. KFC. Subway.
Mac and Cheese: Some may encourage you to stay away from this, one of Panera’s more caloric menu items that also contains almost your entire daily recommended amount of sodium, but ignore the nay-sayers. There simply is no substitute to a good bowl of macaroni and cheese, so eat your heart out.
Panera is expensive because they offer fresh options as apposed to the alternative fast food options. Keeping produce fresh without preservatives is expensive, but well worth the added cost.
These days, the secret menu no longer officially exists — at least according to Panera Bread. Of course, you can still order these secret menu items from most Panera locations, you’ll just have to tell the staff exactly what’s in each item.
Where is Panera Bread located?
Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
In 2005, Panera ranked 37th on Bloomberg BusinessWeek ‘ s list of “Hot Growth Companies”, earning $38.6 million with a 42.9 percent increase in profits. In a 2008 Health magazine study, Panera Bread was judged North America’s healthiest fast casual restaurant and one of North America’s enemies of obese children.
In March 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed by Plaintiff Brianna Tabler in California, accusing Panera of false advertising and fraud. While Panera’s former CEO Ron Schaich claimed that Panera’s menus continue to be completely void of artificial flavors, sweeteners, and ingredients, Tabler argues against the company’s intentional redaction of the fact that their products contain traces of the synthetic biocide glyphosate. In October 2019, Judge Lucy Koh granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Tabler filed an amended complaint in November 2019, to which Panera filed in January 2020 another motion to dismiss.
In 2017, digital orders accounted for over $1 billion in orders, or 26% of sales. In June 2014, Panera unveiled its official Food Policy which detailed commitments to clean ingredients, transparency, and a positive impact on the food system.
In 2007, Panera Bread purchased a 51% stake in Paradise Bakery & Café, a Phoenix metropolitan area -based concept with over 70 locations in 10 states, predominantly in the west and southwest, for $21.1 million. The company purchased the balance of Paradise in June 2009.
In February 2011, Panera agreed to pay $5.75 million to shareholders while admitting no wrongdoing, settling the lawsuit. In October 2008, Panera Bread expanded into Canada, opening locations in Richmond Hill, Thornhill, Oakville, and Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area.
The company leased additional space for its headquarters in 2013. In May 2014, Panera unveiled “Panera 2.0”, a series of integrated technologies including new capabilities for digital ordering, payment, operations, and ultimately, consumption.
What bread is used for Panera?
Make sure that you remember these important pointers before placing an order at the Panera Bread next time: There are many meal options such as “Sierra Turkey” on Asiago cheese focaccia and tomato and mozzarella on ciabatta bread which have surprisingly more number of calories than a McDonald’s double cheeseburger!
One of the most iconic bakery-cafe restaurants in the USA, Panera Bread started from the humble suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri, before being absorbed by Au Bon Pain in 1993 and advancing rapidly into the billion-dollar club.
For those who don’t know, Panera is the Spanish for bread bowl or bread basket and this can be seen signified in its logo. The first glance at any Panera Bread outlet will tell you why a majority of Americans associate it with healthy and tasty eating that they hold close to heart.
Each year, the 6000 bakers employed by Panera Bread are able to bake a whopping 250 million bagels and 50 million baguettes! And the best part is each one of these is freshly prepared. The loaves of bread which remain unsold at the end of the day are not reused the next day or thrown away in the dumpsters.
Avocado, egg white, and spinach sandwich. It’s right there in the name. Replete with the healthy fats of avocados which meets the light yet sturdy egg white proteins, coupled with the green goodness of spinach – this sandwich has everything that makes your breakfast exceedingly nutritious yet tasty.
Proteins, healthy fats, and fiber – these are the three key ingredients that not only increase your satiety (lesser hunger pangs, more fullness!) but also reduce sudden glucose spikes in the blood that is inadvertently linked to the rise of diabetes.
A majority of the poultry and meat ingredients used by Panera Bread are antibiotic-free, grass-fed, and cage-free, …
Sharing is caring, don’t forget to share this post with friends !