Panera Bread

December 24, 2020nWe had unexpected guests for a month and a half. The guests were our youngest son and his family who were in transit from Florida to Singapore for a change of duty station with the US Navy. We don’t get to see them enough so his brother and sister and their families have been taking advantage of the unexpected lay-over.nAs luck would have it Panera emailed me a 25% coupon which I thought would be great. I like their baked goods, I’m not big on their meals. Since this was a good opportunity to load up on some treats, I ordered the Tuesday bagel special, two pastry rings and a four pack of cinnamon rolls about 4 or 5 days ahead of time. When I paid instead of getting the 25% discount of $8.34, I got a $5 discount. Oh well, not going to cry over a couple of bucks and let it go.nWhen Tuesday rolled around, I went to pick up my order and they told me that they only had one pastry ring and asked permission to sub out other pastries to take their place. What was I going to do? I agreed to the substitution, with heavy heart, but still it wasn’t enough to take my time to complain about it.nWhen I got home, I unpacked the treats and found that the pastry ring they told me they had wasn’t packed in with the rest of the goodies. So, I called them up to complain, because you know, by this time the riot of errors was ridiculous. I called them twice and didn’t get an answer either time. I called my wife and asked her to stop by and pick up the pastry ring. She wasn’t very happy by the time she got home because she had been given the run-around.nWe finally did get the missing pastry ring, which was a big hit with the family. Wish I’d had another one. The substitution is going slowly.nMinus two stars.nnFour years ago.nThe cinnamon crunch bagels and the pecan rolls are the best. Make sure to get there before they sell out.

The people who work there as well as the guests who are visiting are very friendly and welcoming. It’s a place to go to catch up with friends or to plan an event. I love the food! I love their customer service skills.

I spent an hour and a half in a booth seat this morning and although I could not see the workers I could hear them and it made me smile as time after time they cheerfully greeted each new customer as they came in! They went above and beyond. My pecan twist and iced tea were delicious but the friendly service is what made my experience especially nice.

Clean, practicing CDC guidelines. Fast and friendly.

There was a mix up on my order, so they most graciously sent me a terrific deal in a post card to make up for it. Even though it was not exactly as I ordered it, it was still delicious.