Panera Bread Opens First DC Location Today in Dupont

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by Prince Of Petworth November 12, 2010 at 4:30 pm 34 Comments

From a press release:

“Panera Bread will open its first bakery-cafe in Washington, DC located at 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW in Dupont Circle on Friday, November 12, 2010.

The new bakery-cafe in Washington, DC will offer a warm and welcoming environment including intimate seating areas, comfortable chairs, a community table and free WiFi Internet access.

The hours of operation for Panera Bread at 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW are Monday-Saturday 6:00 am-9:00 pm and Sunday 7:00 am-8:00 pm.”

Most folks were pretty psyched when we first learned about this back in Aug.

Kristin

YES!! Thanks for the update! I come from an area that has tons of Paneras and I have definitely missed it living in the District. I need my Cinnamon Crunch bagel fix!
JRL

Now all the old people will have somewhere to hang out.
- Main thing
  
  Step off, youngun.
Cafecreme

Awesome! Best sandwiches ever!
Eli

Aren’t they owned by the same company as Corner Bakery? Not much difference in the food regardless. Better than ABP.
- Christopher-NYC
  
  I don’t know why I know this. BUt no.
  
  Panera used to be called the St. Louis Bread Company and when they went national they changed their name to Panera.
  
  Corner Bakery is a spin off of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group. A Chicago group known for years as starting rather over done concept restaurants at all price points in the Chicago area. Their first in the 1970s was RJ Grunts. By the 1980s they were huge and featured lots of profiles of their founder Rich Melman.
  
  Corner Bakery was intended as a compliment to Maggiano’s which is an LYE restaurant.
- Andy
  
  Just no Comparison to ABP!!Quality and service at its best!!ABP just sucks!!
Smilla

Very excited about this. I miss the Lawsons, but I hope the Panera puts the Cosi next door out of business. The Cosi employees are so slow, incompetent and apathetic, they could work for Metro!
Joe

God I miss Lawsons.
Jules

Great! Another chain outlet! Come on, Bebe! Multiply, Starbucks! More Cosi! A Gap would be so awesome! Then Dupont can be as great as Pentagon City Mall! We already have Johnny Rockets!
dog

Lawsons Light (aka Faux Lawsons) operates out of the back of Saxby’s down the block if you need your chicken taco salad fix.
MJ

Panera food is disgustingly over-processed food, just as all chain food is disgustingly over-processed food with lots of added emulsifiers, binders, preservatives, thickeners, conditioners, etc. Of course you can get a salad without dressing on it, but in that case, wtf are you doing overpaying for a salad you could make at home with much fresher ingredients. And even those salad ingredients have been sprayed with chemical wash to eliminate bacteria and bugs.
- Christopher-NYC
  
  I bet you’re a lot of fun at parties.
  - M
    
    LOLOLOL I bet a lot of these negative people are fun at parties. I have never seen so many bitchy, judgmental people in one place in my life. Life is about solving problems, not creating them.
    - DL
      
      What exactly does excoriating the unhealthy attributes of chain restaurant food have to do with being judgmental or bitchy or creating problems?
      - Steven
        
        Well, you see – by criticizing DC’s prepondernace of chain restaurants, you’re also criticizing DC, which means you’re a bougie racist who should move back to Virginia. Or you support slavery. Or something. Because I moved to DC from Waukesha, Wisconsin to be edgy and cool and hip. So excuse me as I stop at Jos. A. Bank to buy a work tie on my way to ironically drinking PBR at Meridian Pint.
        
        Which, by the way, has amazing service and food and is THE BEST BAR EVER so anyone who complains about it is just a hater and is no fun at parties.
  - MJ
    
    Only if they don’t serve Panera food.
    - **DOLPH STRIKE**
      
      MJ is totally right and if you think this is good news you have poor taste in food and style, and are extremely classless.
      
      I chose to live in DC because it has minimal chain restaurants. If I wanted to live in place that has terrible chain restaurants and lots of obesity, I’d move back to the midwest.
      
      MJ, you’re welcome at my parties anytime. We’ll drink microbrews , be skinny, and laugh at the masses.
      - John
        
        Except you’re not very skinny.
- Frankie James
  
  WOW – a real food freak!
Lud Kutersnatch

I hope it’s cleaner than most of the Panera Bread locations I’ve been to in the region. It used to be a reliable chain, but the last one I went to was disgusting and infested with flies. Kind of vomity. The bagels might be safe, but I won’t order a sandwich with meat on it from there.
Rukasu

Welcome to Suburbia DC…IHOP and the forthcoming Wal-Mart, we’re…still holding out for that first Applebee’s, but we’re ever closer to being like the rest of the America
- Anonymous
  
  Well, those Republican staffers have to be able to get lunch when they head downtown from the hill to pick up the bribes from the lobbying firms.
  
  If it doesn’t exist back out in Fairfax County, they won’t eat it because they’re scared of catching gay.
- ag
  
  Theres an applebess at the Atlantic Pacific Station in Brooklyn. so there goes that argument.
Andy

Go Panera!!!Just get ABP and Cosi out of buisness sooner than later!!
Go for the kill and open some more locations in Washington DC….
Welcome to Washington DC!!
Cam

The older I get, the more I enjoy these conversations.

The anti-chain folks are the same ones who loathe Target but will shop at Ikea for similar cheap shit.

They lament the fat people coming out of an IHOP but love the breakfast burgers at the Derby.

And you didn’t come to DC because of the lack of chain stores. You came for a job. Or for grad school. Or for a boy. Moving to DC for the hipster vibe is like moving to Portland for the abundance of fed jobs.

Grow up and express your opinions in the form of recommendations rather than rules.
- Anonymous
  
  Wouldn’t the recommendation to “no more chains” be implied here; more independently owned and operated eateries with less processed food?
  
  Perhaps you need to grow up as well.
- Anonymous
  
  “Moving to DC for the hipster vibe is like moving to Portland for the abundance of fed jobs.”
  
  i actually feel sad for hipsters in this town. it’s like they were too afraid to move to brooklyn, so they came here. which is more dangerous anyway.
Sully

I will never see my husband now. He used to eat those quiches for breakfast lunch and dinner. I can’t compete.
- Shoz
  
  Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The rent is too DAMN HIGH.
My2Cents

I hate hipsters who hate hipsters for being hipsters…
Frankie James

Panera – perfect addition to Dupont!

I don’t get why everyone is so “anti-chain.” I mean McDonalds and Starbucks are everywhere for a reason…

As for Mom & Pop joints – well there are very few worth high consideration. Florida Avenue Grill or Ben’s Chilli are the extremely rare outstanding exceptions in DC and I am sure there is a handful of notables. Most of these places serve everything: burgers, subs, pizza, chinese food, etc… all under one roof (yuck), but yet they specialize in nothing.

The good ones do it right, grow, and command their corners.
Badger

Wait, wait, wait. Wasn’t there a Panera at one point up Connecticut? Like around…um…Van Ness or something? Maybe further North?
Emily

There will always be chains like this. I am just glad it is a PANERA instead of a Cosi on every freaking corner. Variety is still better.

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