Panera’s fix for everything that went wrong is . . . stuffing salad into bread |
Panera’s fix for everything that went wrong is . . . stuffing salad into bread
The quirky menu item is part of a much bigger plan to rebuild trust with customers.
Facing stagnant sales, Panera Bread is aiming to become one of the restaurant industry’s rare comeback stories.
The fast-casual chain’s latest move is the introduction of new “Salad Stuffers,” a fresh spin on one of Panera Bread’s most iconic menu items: the bread bowl. Instead of filling a sourdough bread bowl with soup, however, it’s stuffing a handheld Italian-style roll with salad.
The idea sounds simple enough, and yet CEO Paul Carbone says Panera thoroughly tested the innovation before adding it to the menu. A team of chefs and bakers experimented with 20 different breads to find one with the desired “fluffy and soft” texture.
Any salad on Panera’s menu, ranging from the chicken caesar to the steakhouse salad, can become a “stuffer.” The new menu item coincides with a broader plan at the fast-casual chain to use around nine ingredients for each salad creation. That’s closer to what competitors like Sweetgreen offer, and also more than the average of five ingredients previously featured in Panera’s salads.
The Salad Stuffers were methodically tested in two regional markets over the course of three months, according to Carbone, who was elevated to his chief executive post in March 2025 after serving as interim CEO for three months and chief financial officer prior to that since 2023.
“Maybe that’s the CFO in me,” Carbone tells Fast Company. “We test, we learn, we iterate.”
A turnaround after cutting too much
Panera Bread is in the very early stages of a turnaround effort in the wake of operation errors that Carbone says included making portions smaller and swapping in less-desirable ingredients. Carbone says Panera will invest $100 million more in its company-operated cafés in 2026 compared to last year’s spending levels, funding that will add five hours of extra labor per day to each café, support menu innovation, and boost the quality of the food on the chain’s menu. Franchisees, who account for around 50% of Panera’s system of 2,249 locations, are expected to match that corporate investment.
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