— Interview with Eduardo Luz — Panera puts on a show with several new design formats catering to the needs of an increasingly digital and off-premise guest. If variety is the spice of life, the many evolving iterations of Panera these days is keeping its real estate and construction game pretty hot. Currently boasting more than 2,100 bakery-cafes (in 48 states and Ontario, Canada), Panera operates under the Panera Bread® or Saint Louis Bread Co.® names; roughly half of these cafes are company-owned. Never a brand to sit …
Panera Curbside
St. Louis — Panera Bread has opened the first “Panera To Go,” a new Panera Bread restaurant format offering digitally-enabled convenience for Rapid Pick-Up® and Delivery orders. The Chicago-based restaurant is the first of three Panera To Go test locations scheduled to open this year. Two additional Panera To Go cafes will open in California and Washington D.C. this year; the company will also evaluate adding in kiosk and catering orders to the new format in the future. Panera To Go is a digital-only bakery-cafe, with a reduced front of …