A Love Letter to Early 2000s Panera

A deep dive on the design, colors, space, and re-imagined recipes to bring that nostalgic spot back to life in your own home.

This Whimsy Dispatch will help you recreate the warm feeling of a 2000s Panera on a rainy day in your own home.

It includes: re-imagined recipes on Panera classics (like the house latte & the Tuscan Chicken sandwich), a playlist to bring it to life, an in-depth design analysis, and home decor items to bring it all to life.

Oh, Honey, We Have 2005 Panera at Home!

It was a crisp fall afternoon. School had let out, and we were all in carline, plaid skirts swishing in the breeze. They had 5th grade carline in a special area, away from the peons of Kindergarten through 4th graders. We had matured, we were at the top, and we had our own carline. We’d carry CDs in our backpacks just to show each other. “SOS” by the Jonas Brothers was freshly out, and we’d flip through the insert’s photos, landing on which brother we’d like to be our husband (Joe has always been the correct answer, by the way).

The wait for pickup never seemed long. Folded MASH games on paper were filled with beach homes, shacks, Nick, Kevin, Joe, and having 17 children. We’d do elaborate clapping handshakes and repeat them with each other until we had them memorized. Nehemiah had inherited his father’s old Blackberry, and if we caught his favor, he’d let us have a turn playing brick. Our polos and hair and backpacks smelled like sharpened pencils and school air conditioning, and the Florida weather was barely dropping in temperature, but in a way that made us discuss our Halloween costumes pre-emptively.

Mandy’s mom pulled up and waved me over, too. She said my mom had called, and I would be going home with them today. Eager, of course, for an impromptu playdate, but suspicious that my mother hadn't confirmed this calendar update with me, I hopped in the car. We probably jumped on the trampoline or filmed a music video on her father’s white MacBook’s Photo Booth. The usual. But my mom came and picked me up shortly after. I was relieved to be back on track. She told me we were going to Panera.

I was thrilled, as I asked almost daily to stop somewhere after school for a treat (McDonald’s, 7-11, etc.), and was often told we had some food at home. Panera was a special treat. In my heart, I knew I belonged in such an establishment of sophistication, with the smell of baking bread and espresso in the air.

I picked the largest M&M cookie they had from behind the glass and sat down in a booth with my mom. My strategy was to pick the cookie apart into smaller cookies, so my experience would last longer. It was as if, like the loaves and fish, my cookie had miraculously multiplied into many cookies (I still do this).

The fresh smell of bagel filled the air. My favorite was the asiago. My mom would get the You Pick Two, but didn’t this time. She watched me pick my cookie apart and then told me she had some hard news to share. Without pausing for a moment to stop eating every crumb of the cookie or come up for air, I listened to her explanation of a complicated family situation that would result in a divorce in my extended family. I nodded. Ate another stray M&M. She asked if I had any questions. I don’t recall that I did. And then we just sat in Panera together, the hyper-patterned booths and abstract bread wall art holding the weight of the conversation.

It became my mom and I’s spot throughout life. For good news and hard news, celebrations of straight A’s, usually my pick for a birthday treat, a spot to study for a test — Panera was it.

What is tragic to me now, like many precious spaces of childhood, is that I cannot go back. The early 2000s Panera that was there for me is no longer with us.

You see, Panera Bread was a “third place” long before that phrase became trendy.

Anthony Coleman was the brand designer responsible 30+ years ago for bringing the vision of Panera Bread to life through design. He explained to writer Vince Dixon, the entire space was crafted meticulously with warm colors, evoking feelings of home and gathering. Their intention was for customers to feel as if they were at home.

“We also recognized the customer was being challenged with a whole bunch of dynamics in the world: their job, politics, war, lots of things hitting them,” Coleman says, “and we wanted to come up with an environment that was a way of giving them a retreat.” Most locations still feature fireplaces and sepia hues, tying together the ideas of warmth, bread, and baking.

Panera Bread was intentionally creating a “gathering place,” where they offered fast and casual dining alongside free wifi before Starbucks even did. It took the “Global Village Coffeehouse” aesthetic, which itself is a product of cultural trends and earlier design experimentation, and made it mainstream, yet kept enough soul that customers still reminisce fondly about the “old Panera” look.

But is it possible to bring pieces of the traditional Panera zest back to life? And can I convey this warmth in my own home?

I am here to report that it may indeed be possible. I have design detective notes and a bunch of re-imagined classic recipes, but before you proceed reading — I ask that you please put this playlist on in the background, just to set the tone as if we are in a 2005 Panera at the mall:

The Pallette

You would never know it if you saw the bleak white Panera now, but the Panera environment used to be bursting with warm colors, large abstract bread artwork, and wooden furniture. They were never afraid of patterns, having carpets and booth upholstery coated in chaotic patterns and shapes. The palette is reminiscent of the trending “Tuscan Kitchen” look of the early 2000s — dark tiles, dark wood, lots of food motifs, iron-wrought accessories.

I did a deep dive and found a home decor chat board from 14 years ago where a user, and now trusted source, named “mamawgreen_verizon_net” shared the complete list of the actual Benjamin Moore paint colors Panera used:

The Feeling

How did Panera Bread set out to make every restaurant “feel like home?” I read more from Anthony Coleman about his 16 years as Panera’s VP of Creative Design, and then I found as many photos (and there really aren’t that many) as I could from the internet of old Panera designs. I drew a few conclusions:

• At its start, Panera was really focused on “doing bread right.” Their early marketing used the word “artisan” frequently. The whole menu, brand, and design were focused on quality bread. Bread is reflected everywhere.

  • Their logo design features bread predominantly

  • The artwork on the wall was commissioned by a collection of artists from all over the country, and you guessed it — most of the art is of bread

  • The palette they drew from for the entire design was warm, toasty, and food-centric

(I think they had like three house lattes before filming this)

• The second major focus is “gathering.”

  • Before fast-and-casual digitized and all became take-out spots, places like Panera were incredibly focused on giving people places to enjoy for hours at a time. Unlike Starbucks, Panera had warm food and free wifi. Their marketing was targeting gatherings of people — study sessions, church groups, moms with strollers, families.

  • Panera was created to serve as a “third space” for people to be in community with one another and enjoy delicious bread. Everything was designed to facilitate this:

    • No bar stools, but booth seating

    • Very little focus on take-out or pick-up

    • Long dining tables for large groups, circular tables for smaller groups

    • So many grab-and-go bakery items, so you could stay in the space for hours at a time, munching throughout the day.

I didn’t quite expect my silly Panera article to become cultural commentary, but the more I studied the business model and design, I felt a bit blue. I was born in 1998, and got to experience a little of the pre-Internet takeover. We had places like Panera to sit down and be together. I remember most of my life, we chose a place to gather weekly with different families and friends for Sunday lunch.

I live in New York, and sometimes when I try to get a coffee with a friend, we have to go to three different spots to find a table. Cafés are full of laptops. Tables only seat two people, most of the time. Countless people sit alone on a device. Or often the coffee shop doesn’t have any seating at all, allowing for only take-out. Bar seating replaced booths. And casual spots, like Panera, have now given significant square footage to pickup and order ahead apps. It’s just different. And we watched it change.

I hope we all try to bring back the ethos of gathering. I think a lot of people are trying to. And so many amazing small businesses are fighting for this — I hope we see and support them. And go camp out and eat some bread and talk for hours with people we love.

Okay…on to how to make your house smell like bread and all my re-imagined Panera recipes: