Panera employs over 6,000 bakers who make more than 250 million bagels and 50 million baguettes each year. Every night, fresh dough is delivered to all Panera locations from Fresh Dough Facilities across the country. So their bread is about as fresh as it gets.

Paradise Bakery & Café locations were rebranded in September 2015 as Panera Bread. In the fourth quarter of 2015, Panera acquired a majority stake in Tatte Bakery & Cafe, a bakery-cafe concept chain with locations in the Boston area, later opening in metro Washington D.C.

Bread dough While it is true that the crew at Panera does bake their bread on site, the dough isn't actually made from scratch at that same dine-in location. Prepared dough actually arrives every day via truck from a source close to the restaurant, and it may or may not be frozen.