Review: Panera Bread

Panera Bread:

• Coffee/tea drinks: their coffee sits out in canisters, and their espresso is okay. Their chai tea latte in a mug is a sweet treat, but not especially refined. Their bag-tea is marginal.
• Food: arguably the best food options of any coffee shop because they bake pastries, bread, bagels, and have a full restaurant. If you get something that looks fresh, it's usually pretty good.
• Internet: Free unlimited wifi!
• Outlets: Approximately 10 cords can be plugged in (5 outlet plates)
• Bathrooms: nicely private because they are down a hall. A little cramped at the sink, however.
• Chairs: not too bad. There are table-chairs (pictured above), booths, stools, and comfy couch/chairs. However, a few table-chairs could stand to be restuffed.
• Crowds: easy to find a table in the morning and evening, but it's crowded and noisy at lunch.
• Music: usually nice classical music.

Parking: Limited. There are about 5 or so street parking spots for Panera, and about 5-10 1 hour parking spots (which they very rarely monitor). It's real hit or miss with these. Early and late there you can probably find something, but lunch time is pretty much out of the question. There is also a large parking garage, but it fills up entirely on some days. It may be tempting to park in the nearby bank parking lot, but they are sticklers about Panera customers (one time they hired someone just to stand there and ask you if you were going into the bank or not).