In a city where eating local is close to a religion, the opening of Vermont’s first Panera bakery-café this morning — smack in the midst of Church Street — probably evoked something close to a collective groan.

At least, you might like to think so. By 11 a.m., though, dozens of people had already made their way across an outdoor patio festooned with balloons, past a clutch of managers and a flickering gas fireplace, to form a line at the bakery counter. Judging from the casual certainty with which some ordered their choices — a cinnamon-crumb coffee cake, for instance, or a spaceship-shaped pumpkin “muffie” — many Burlingtonians are pretty familiar with the chain already. They may know it either from traveling or from having lived in some other American exurb where Panera is a popular — and sometimes the only — place to fortify oneself with “quick-casual” fare while feeding off free Wi-Fi.

In the Upper Valley, for instance, practically every coffee shop (including those in Hanover, N.H., the most uncollegiate of college towns) closes by 6 p.m, rendering Panera the only place to nurse coffee and your computer after dusk. It’s always bustling.

Vermont’s first Panera was one of three to open today (the other two were in Syracuse, N.Y., and California). ‘”It seems strange we were never in Vermont before,” says district manager David Almond, who moved here to help open the store and has had fun exploring local restaurants with his wife, Julie. “[The chain] sells a lot of Vermont products.” Including, he says, the Vermont white cheddar atop Panera’s mac-and-cheese, though neither he nor a person at corporate HQ knew specifically where that cheese comes from.

The arrival of the 120-seat Church Street café enabled some longtime Panera employees to transfer back their home turf, adds Almond. How does he think the chain’s baked goods will fare in the bustling local baking scene? “I think we’ll fit in well. Plus, we’ve given 60 people jobs,” he says.

The chain has nearly 1500 locations in 41 states and is undergoing a seemingly frenetic expansion toward its stated mission of placing “a loaf of bread in every arm.” Another location is under construction in Rutland, due to open late this year or early next. Whether you like it or not, Panera is here to stay.

This article appears in The Real Estate Issue 2011.

Corin Hirsch was a Seven Days food writer 2011 through 2016. She was also a dining critic and drinks columnist at Newsday from 2017 to 2022, and contributes to The Guardian, Wine Enthusiast and other publications. She’s spoken often on colonial era drinking and is the author of Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England, published by History Press in 2014.

27 replies on “Love It or Not, Panera Bread Has Arrived”

  1. certainly don’t understand the media’s need to publicize this new “big box chain” in a small spot when we have so many local (and better, in my opinion) options trying to make it in burlington. perhaps they’re just aware of who might have the most advertising bucks available!

  2. At least we have that great VT institution Ben and Jerry’s – oh wait, sorry, I mean Burton – oh wait, sorry – I mean…

  3. WHy is there so much publicity around a chain bakery arriving in town? 7 Days, the BFP – all heralding it’s arrival. Not sure I understand the importance of this “story”.

  5. From Panera’s Site:”Fresh Dough Manufacturing FacilitiesWith unparalleled teamwork, expertise and the finest ingredients, our fresh dough manufacturing facilities located across the country produce the finest dough and drive many miles to deliver it to your neighborhood bakery-cafe where we bake all of our amazing products fresh from the oven each and every day.”Good luck up against established local bakeries who, crazy thought, actually produce their own organically certified bread from scratch right here in Chittenden County, some even using locally grown and milled flour. Here’s something to ponder: I wonder how much GMO-flour and other GMO-ingredients go into Panera’s offerings? Hmmmm.

  6. Could care less about the localness or lack thereof of Panera (remember, going from Old Navy to mostly OGE/a little Panera is still a big net gain, localvores). I just find this kind of an odd choice. Panera is great in its usual locales, i.e. suburban strip malls where it’s the only alternative to chicken nuggets, but here? What’s the point of a fake hipster bakery/coffeeshop when there are 12 real hipster bakery/coffeshops within a half-mile radius? Especially when the food isn’t as good and roughly the same price?Then again, people still line up out the door for Starbucks when Uncommon Grounds is right across the street. Panera doesn’t serve “venti”-sized sandwiches, do they?

  7. It’s really a shame that the owners of this space refused to lease it to any of the local businesses that were lined up, checkbooks in hand.

  8. Hanover is an Appalachian Trail town and home to the Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, as well as Hypertherm.

  9. And so is, starbucks and macy’s and the gap and banana republic and on and on. Burlington is far from special. Get over yourselves.

  10. ” (Hanover, N.H., the most uncollegiate of college towns) “How much crack are you smoking, or have you not been to Hanover in the last 30 years? Hanover is little more than the address for Dartmouth College, one of the most expensive private colleges in the nation. What identity, beyond Dartmouth, does Hanover have anymore?

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