Panera Bread Open

I never been to one and found it to be very pleasant and a little homey with fireplace and free wi-fi and outdoor patio. my sandwich and soup was excellent.

It was fairly busy at 10am in the morning.

Lee

 

where is this new one?
I like panera. Hubby and I have had lunch at the one in Leesburg a few times.
yummy

 

Open? I went there Sunday and they were still setting it up.

 

It is in the "under construction" shopping plaza right in front of the Ashburn Home Depot (Shellhorn Road). YUM!

 

You have to come in from either Ryan Road or Shellhorn Rd going towards LCP. If you are coming from LCP you need to make a U-Turn at Ryan Rd.. There is an entrance off of Shellhorn, but you cannot easily get to it from the entrance for Home Depot as the parking lot is blocked off. I did see one small restaurant is coming into the strip mall part, but all the other store fronts look totally vacant with no sign of coming tenants.

 

I am a newb to Ashburn, so I have to ask.
Is this the one where the 4 way stop with waxpool and shellhorn?
if you are coming from claireborne pkwy it's on the right hand side?

Tx
GSC

 

Yes, its just past that 4 way stop headed east, you then turn right to the Home Depot, its the new strip mall going up there.

 

We stopped in on Friday for lunch and it was great!
Service, cleanliness, food quality & quantitiy---all great! Hope it continues and it will be a great addition to the area!

Sure wish the "Giant" slated for next to that Panera was going to be a Bed Bath Beyond or soemthing like that rather than ANOTHER grocery store!

 

Ditto that!

 

Yea - who needs ANOTHER grocery store...geesh.....

 

Drove by Panera Bread today at lunch time and the parking lot was packed. Have good food and quality, good price, nice atmosphere and service and people will come.

Lee J Buividas

 

We've been there twice now. Definitally like the atmosphere . The food was really good and the people have been very nice. Nice place.

 

I can't wait for Chipotle

 

We wernt for lunch today at 1pm. It was very busy. Line for ordering went pretty fast, but getting the food took almost 20 min. The staff was still learning the ropes, so hopefully they will get better with time.

 

They opened a Chipotle here in Pittsburgh today. Only one !! However, they will have another open by November near Carnegie Mellon, and one next February in Cranbury Township.

Frankly, I was going into serious burrito withdrawl !!

 

Okay---I've been there 3 times since they opened and its not getting better. First of all, this a very "scaled down" Panera compared to others I've been to (Leesburg/Rockville)---much more limited menu. And the service just stinks.
The first two times I went were within a week or two of opening and I expected some wait time and general confusion. But this visit clinched it for me. I walked in at 2:15pm on Sunday (after the lunch rush I would think...)for the purpose of just getting a latte to-go and there were 5 groups of customers on line in front of me (families, couples, etc.) No one at the front bakery counter to just get a coffee--gotta wait on the primary line. ONE cashier. One dopey guy stacking the flashing pager things. Cashier slow and confused. Dopey guy keeps stacking and restacking pager things. Over and over again. Not sure what he was accomplishing other than trying to look busy. He certainly did nothing to help the overall process.

After about 4-5 minutes of the cashier being confused and running around and not actually progressing ONE customer, someone who seemed "manager-like" finally approaches the front area. I thought--good, now things will get moving. He walks past the cashier to the Dopey Stacker Guy who is 5 feet from me and whispers something to him and turns and walks away. The Dopey Stacker Guy says back to him loudly "Aww. You ain't gonna activate me are you, man?" The manager-like guy looks back and nods to which Dopey Stacker Guy says "ASSHOLE" and keeps stacking while now adding the complicated body movement of head shaking and muttering.

At that point, I left. When I walked out there were another 4 people or groups on line behind me. I don't think I'll be back for awhile. The place seems totally disorganized. Maybe they could put Dopey Stacker Guy in charge. It might be an improvement.

 

Last weekend we used their phone ahead service. Ordered one sandwich, no onions, and one panini. They said it would be ready in 10 minutes. Hubby goes to pick up the order, walks directly to the counter in back where you pick up orders. He asks for our order, a guy behind the counter immediately said, "Oops... I forgot that one." They proceed to hurry and make our order. They hand it to hubby, hubby says, "Do I pay HERE?" They tell him that no, in fact he must now go wait in the REGULAR line up front to pay.

Huh? Why bother having a phone ahead service? I can give them a half a break for forgetting to make our order. Stuff happens. But even if it HAD been made on time, having to get back in the regular line to pay makes ZERO sense.

And when he got home, he found onions on his sandwich. Bah.

 

service DOES leave alot to be desired- that's the problem so many businesses run into here. we've gone several times and love the atmosphere, but have aways had to "assist" the staff in getting our order right... how hard is coffee and a quiche?!? management better get a handle on it ASAP.