Friday Foodista: Panera Bread

One of my passions in life is food. And if you’ve seen me in person, you know that its apparent (Hey! My mom tells me I’m just big boned). So I figured that it would make sense to make a new segment called Friday Foodista. Where I plan on writing up reviews of food joints that I’ve been to and that I think you should (or shouldn’t) check out.  The name is a little corny so if you have any suggestions let me know.

For the inaugural post on Friday Foodista, I went over to Panera Bread over in Chino Hills, CA.Formally known as a “Bakery Cafe”, Panera specializes in fine baked goods and coffee/tea and everything in between. My first experience with Panera was with my friend Isaac. We sauntered in because it was pretty late and most of the other food places had already closed (Chino Hills is a school town. Everyone is in bed by 8 for some random reason). Late at night, you cannot beat a bear claw and some hot Earl Grey tea. Since thene, I’ve been coming back (mostly after work) or coming back with the lady to enjoy a light and simple lunch.

Environment:
In my personal experience, I think Panera is a brand new phenomenon on the West Coast. As I understand it, they’ve already established themselves as a classy “Starbucks-with-food” on the midwest and the east coast; where the up-and-coming wunderkinds come to tic-and-tac on their blackberries while working on the first draft of their novel.  There are many tables, most of them two-seaters for you an a friend and a few booths. The booths are quite comfortable and spacious.  There is free wi-fi internet; so it is not surprising that one would see many a college student hunkered down in one of the booths with a laptop and various tomes strewn about the table. Be a sport; buy something if youre going to be mooching off the free wi-fi all night.

Sans the occasionally colicky baby, Panera is generally a pretty quiet place, with nothing more than smooth jazzy muzak and the general human drone to accompany it. The oldsters you find playing dominos, scrabble, or chess are a testament to this. The walls are adorned with various famous paintings that have redone to add a loaf of bread in them; theres even one of a figure and a baguette done in the Cubist style.  All in all, a good place to study. Electrical outlets are few, but thats alright, youre there to eat and read, not check your Facebook. Personally, I dont really care too much for the chic, “Ikea-Starbucks-had-a-lovechild style” but thats alright, because the food speaks for itself.

Food:

Panera sells sandwiches and salads along with gourmet coffee and teas blends. I normally come to Panera for lunch or a mid-afternoon early dinner. Their premium sandwiches are made of a various cornucopia of ingredients: Chicken, roast beef, turkey, grilled vegetables, you name it, they’ve got it. Their soups change daily but there are a few that are ’staples’ on there. As of this writing they had; French onion, chicken noodle, forest mushroom, creamy tomato, baked potato, and broccoli cheddar. (God, I realized that I just typed up their entire souplist from memory, help me.).

I normally get a Frontega chicken grilled panini with a cup of forest mushroom (or God willing, chicken and wild rice) in a sourdough bread bowl. They throw in a side of more bread (?!) to accompany the soup.  Normally, I dont eat bread by itself; i always need it with butter or something on it. But Panera bread is so good that I have no qualms eating just the bread. Its is soft (even when not warm) and moist, and it showers the palate with subtle flavors. The chicken is whole-white-meat and is moist and flavorful (not like other white meat chicken, where it tastes like youre eating paper). For those that dont care for the fancy pants sandwiches they have classics such as grilled cheese (pairs great with the creamy tomato soup) and peanut butter and jelly (great with a fresh fruit bowl).

They also serve breakfast from opening to the about 11 am. Bagels, souffles, and breakfast sandwiches are available.  I’ve never really their bagels before but my girlfriend, Michelle says the “Everything” bagel is one to die for. My only experience with breakfast (lets be honest with each other; I rarely get up before 12 noon anyways =D) was with their cheese, egg and spinache souffle/sandwich thingy.

Price:
For about $4-6 dollars, you can grab a sandwich a-la-carte. $6-8 gets you a bowl of soup along with your premium sandwich (dubbed the “You Pick Two”). To have your soup in a sourdough bread bowl its around $1 more. Endless fountain drinks are around another dollar. You can get a good decent meal for around $12-14. Not as good as a “5-dollar-5-dollar-footloooong” at Subway but the difference is attributed to better ingredients which means a better taste.

Jury’s verdict:
While its true that it isnt a cheap as something like Subway or Quizno’s, I believe that their sandwiches taste much better by far. Their chicken is real and not those thawed, glorifed, chicken nuggets that Subway uses. The price point is decent. In fact,  Nothing there is ever frozen or “thawed”; everything is baked and made to order. Their bread dough is delivered daily and cooked in the morning, so there is never any worry of getting a stale baguette.

Panera bread gets 4 stars.