Panera Bread

Panera’s pulling this location is yet another example of corporate greed over the livelihood of its employees. Rather than being strategic or simply charging a premium for goods, which I’m sure our community would prefer over your closing, Panera of all places sends Chicago a message that it’s corporate politics over people and community. I’ll now be sure to stay away from all of your locations because your company is clearly opposed to paying people a fair wage in this day and age.

The food is excellent; I have no problems with the food whatsoever. The place is also very clean and well-​maintained.
Yet it is near impossible to find a parking spot, possibly because people seem to sit there for hours surfing the Internet. Dude, if you are gonna use your laptop in public, at least write or write existential philosophy or Photoshop your pictures. .. something artistic, at least. .. but using the Internet while sitting in an area of limited seating is just lame. I don’t expect this to be Paris in the 1930s, but if the place is crowded, vamoose, would ya? The last time I was there, I had to sit 36 inches from a grunting, small-​Coke-​ordering dumbass who listened to a series of Youtube preachers and kept mumbling something like «Oh Jesus, Oh yes» each time the preacher made a point he agreed with. The intellectual wattage rivals the dimness that once emanated from the the café at the Borders across the street when it was open. I like hanging out in cafes as much as the next person, but, sometimes I want to say (to steal a line from «Caddyshack»), «Don’t you people have homes?»
I wouldn’t mind so much if the squatters were high school kids or college students. They need safe places to hang out and talk and study. But that’s not the case (not usually).
Again, the food is good. The service is excellent. Just do yourself a favor and get it to go. You may also want to walk there if you can, or if you know someone who is driving to Walmart or something, maybe ask if they can drop you off on the way. Be sure to preface the request with «I don’t need you to pick me up,» because that way, the person will be more likely to do it.
Humans, man. They crazy, they like daisies, and they watch the films of Swayze and Scorsese. But they also lazy.

This Panera is very close to my house do this morning I decided to stop by and get breakfast. I wanted tea, but in this location you don’t chose the tea and put the tea bags in the cup, they do it for you. This sounded strange to me. She said it was for «sanitation» reasons. Never seen this before. My friend asked for coffee. Coffee was out. Then they wanted us to tell them which one. There was actually more than one out do coffee. Not good customer service. In all the Paneras I’ve seen they always are taking care of this. Food there is always good, but service was under par. Too many employees talking to each other and not paying attention.
I wonder where was the manager

One of the nicer places to meet in south side. Good atmosphere, only complaint is not enough outlets!

I do enjoy Panera, I’m just unhappy with this location. I’ve given up on the hot sandwiches– they are served mediocre temperature. Gross.
I often leave with my lunch to return to my job and realize my silverware has not been included. I must lock up my store again and return to get a soup spoon. My fault for not checking the bag before leaving, I guess.
Last straw was this morning. I just wanted a tea and thought I made that clear. The general manager was ringing me up and did what I assume corporate presses him to do– he asked, «Are you sure you don’t want a bagel or pastry to go with that tea?»
If I wanted a pastry, I would have ordered one. Hassling a sleepy eyed customer into buying more than they requested is not upselling– it’s offputting and annoying at best.
Perhaps this manager should focus more on providing better customer service and quality in what was already ordered to get his numbers up, instead of trying to squeeze extra dollars out of customers by attempting to get them to purchase items they don’t want.
I give up. I’m going to Turkey Time or Potbelly’s in the future.

The only saving grace for this particular branch of Panera was the usually great food that they are known for. This has got to be the worse Panera I have ever been to. When I arrived the two staff behind the counter were more interested in having a conversation with each other than helping customers. Then they got my order wrong. Like I said, were it not for the usually great pastries and decent teas, I would have given this location a one star review.

I dig Panera now. Before, I used to hate Panera because I couldn’t stand the grody smell or the chain-​iness of it. I have changed.
The food is varied and okay. While you might not want to have a romantic date, celebrate a graduation, get married/​civil union-​ed, or throw any other type of fancy event here, you will want to study/​write/​work here. This Panera is spacious, clean, stocked, and coffee’ed. You can stay for awhile and make some other study buddy friends! You can practice a hermit lifestyle in the back in a cozy little nook if you want. You can sit near loud obnoxious people who don’t know how to use their indoor voices. You can move away from the outside-​voice talkers to another spot. Whatever your studying/​writing/​working style is, this Panera can help you out.
Fair warning: this is a chain restaurant, which means that they do not play around with the AC. Wear layers.

Relaxed environment, free wifi, the best sandwiches you can imagine, as well as soups and a myriad of other things that will get you nice and full. Love this sandwich place.

What a great place for coffee and wi-​fi. Great sandwich and pastry choices as well. This Panera location is a favorite for book clubs, bible study and other group meetings.

This Panera is more like a neighborhood gathering place than a restaurant. Everyone from the area come in to hang out or just chat — even if they don’t buy anything. It’s a great place to study or catch up on work. They usually let you stay an extra hour after they close at 9, which is nice of them.

The WIFI is delicious and the soup works good.

This Panera is within walking distance of my place of work, so we end up walking over here frequently when we don’t want to battle the traffic in the area. The place is always packing with people — especially people that sit there for hours on their laptops, while buying nothing or buying a small drink. Can you tell I am kind of annoyed? It’s just frustrating when you are standing there holding your lunch and looking for a place to sit and eat — and ¾’s of the seats are taken by people, their laptops and 200 pages of papers sprawled out on 3 tables for one person drinking a small pop.
FYI: This Panera is in a strip mall with other popular stores, so the parking lot is always packed! You may have to circle around the parking lot a couple of times.
Anyway, back to Panera… typical food that you can get at most of the other locations. This place is always a little slower than some of the other locations that I have been to. However, the food is always consistent and good. I could eat soup, sandwiches and salads everyday!