Panera Bread on Jefferson

I've never been to a Panera Bread before, but I'm eager to check it out. PB&J on freshly-baked bread is right up my alley.

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PB&J on freshly-baked bread

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Mine too. Words cannot express how great that bread is. White is velvelty soft, and crust is crispy/chewy. Apparently they have an overnight shift that does nothing but bake fresh bread daily.
NOM NOM

The bread at Panera is awesome.

The bread at the Panera on Vets is most definitely NOT baked on site....have seen the plain white van delivering it with my own eyes. Dunno if one of the other locations serves as bake house, or if the local baking is contracted out.

Panera is still slinging overly sweet, squishy American style bread, fairly mass produced and industrial. Give me a sandwich or loaf from Breads on Oak, Bellegarde, or Gracious over Panera any day of the week. And yes, Gracious has a pb&j on the menu.

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When did it open?

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I went to the charity event they had on Wednesday, and I think that was their soft open to get the staff trained up and used to dealing with hordes of people.

Ah, I was about to say that I drove by Wednesday and it didn't look open

I'm not sure how the one vets operates but I used to live in Mobile and I'm pretty sure they had night shift bakers. I like their menu although I always felt like the cold sandwiches were underwhelming for the most part. Breakfast items, Soups, salads and baked goods are all very good. Spent many Saturday mornings studying there and enjoying a good breakfast. Breakfast power sandwich FTW. Cinnamon crunch bagel with that honey walnut spread....oh lawd

We've had them up here in Louisville for awhile and it's one of the handful of places I'll go for "fast food". They don't make the bread on site (they bake it there, but the dough comes in from one of it's distribution sites) but it's as fresh as it gets for a fast food spot.

Their breakfast is on point and I've done their You Pick Two items for lunch or dinner. They're good for some tasty low-cal options too.

Just went, and ordered a large variety of items -- PB&J on white, Asiago roast beef sandwich, tomato soup, French onion soup, chicken salad sandwich, cinnamon crunch bagel w/ honey walnut spread, Greek salad, and cinnamon swirl crunch cake -- and everything was excellent.

Their parking lot has been jammed every time I've driven by, with cars spilling onto Jefferson Highway and blocking traffic. Think I'll wait until it's a little less of a cluster f**k.