Generally, I make it a policy not to review chain restaurants. My goal in writing this column is to introduce people to establishments they might not try otherwise. Besides, many people are already familiar with chains—I’m not telling them anything new.
Panera Bread, though, snuck in under my radar. A friend recommended the place; I’d never heard of it (they’re new to the state), and the food was quite good. Checking out their website at home, I later discovered that they have hundreds of locations nationwide. At that point, though, I figured that a new restaurant that served tasty, inexpensive food was worth telling students about anyway.
Picture a cross between Starbucks and Au Bon Pain and you have the place exactly, both in décor and menu. Even though the restaurant is quite large it was packed on Thursday night. (Perhaps many other people had the same idea my fiancée did—Passover had just ended and she wanted bread.)
There are a dozen or so different sandwiches on the menu, all served on a different type of bread, and five different soups are available each day. They also sell whole loaves of bread, bagels, pastries, and a whole bunch of beverages, mostly coffee-related.
Prices are reasonable—you can get out for around seven dollars if you manage to avoid the grande-house-caffe-mocha-latte or what have you; if not, it’ll be more like $10. The best deal is probably the bowl of soup and half sandwich for six bucks—it was plenty of food for me.
Panera’s French onion soup is excellent, and I went for a Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich, which comes with smoked Gouda cheese—any restaurant that serves sandwiches with smoked Gouda ranks highly in my book. Great lemonade was just an added bonus. My fiancée’s Mediterranean veggie sandwich also met with approval, and the cherry strudel we split for dessert was ok, though I found it a bit too sweet.
Basically, this is good stuff for just barely more than you’d pay in the McNeil Room. If you get a chance, go check out Panera.
Panera Bread is located in the Latham Farms plaza. To get there, go west out of Troy on Route 7. Take the exit for Route 9, Latham, and turn right at the end of the ramp. Make another right at the second traffic light, taking you into Latham Farms. Go straight past two intersections and Panera will be on the right, right by PetSmart.
