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.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
As a former travelling sales rep in the Midwest, I ate at Panera 3 or 4 times. Although a better choice than Wendy’s or a truck stop, I always felt bloated and gross after my vegetarian soup, bread, and sometimes salad. Their food is pretty gross and loaded with salt (and who knows what else!). With so many creative and motivated local entrepreneurs, why Panera? Why do we want to look like any other ordinary US town? Church Street will soon look like a soccer mom strip mall at this rate…
I just don’t like Panera’s food. it’s like subway but for soup and pastries. I used to live in an area that had them, so i’ve tried it, and it’s gross.
I also wondered about the sign. The OGE was hanging up there just a few days ago, so I thought the city acquiesced. It was smaller than the Panera sign. I don’t get it?
Who wanted to go into the space? If some of you get so annoyed when a business you don’t like moves into Burlington you should just go away! And take your pork bellies and fois gras with you.
Actually, the sign issue is pretty interesting. I went back and looked at the post during the OGE debacle (http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2011/06/outdoor-gear-exchange-has-moved-to-bigger-space-on-burlingtons-church-street-but-the-stores-signature-hand-made-sign-m.html.Burlin)gton planning rejected OGE’s sign because 1.) it was more than 14 feet off the ground (the door sign, NOT the tower sign), 2.) the sign above the glass canopy looks out of place, and 3.) it didn’t fit in with the building’s architecture. Seems to me that the Panera sign also violates all three of these conditions, as well. Am I missing something?
“Does anyone know why Panera was allowed by P+Z to put their sign on the front of the building when OGE was refused?”Because it’s not over the 14 foot limit, as OGE’s would have been. Scandal!”oh that’s right, the company went bankrupt.”Yeah, practically the day they moved in. Or ten years later, whatever.This thread cracks me up. Panera will do great in that spot, and probably have market research that tells them so. That might be a foreign concept in a town where no one bats an eye when a telecom company spends tens of millions of taxpayer dollars without a business plan, but it often actually works.
“Oh no, they are not local so they are evil”. I wonder if the employees that now have a job will think that way…