Rob Sopkin News Today

In motion before COVID, but sent into hyper-drive, a new restaurant design and experience for Panera Bread is starting to ramp up.

Panera has chosen Ballwin, Missouri, as the home of its first "next-generation" restaurant design. Featuring a modern dine-in experience around its fireplace coupled with enhanced digital, personalized options and dual drive-thru access, the restaurant opened this week and is on…

Well, it came, and actually happened, with many great sighs of relief. Restaurant leaders were finally able to get together to collaborate and innovate on-site.

Eduardo Luz, chief brand and concept officer, and Rob Sopkin, SVP, chief development officer, at Panera Bread, shared the keynote at the Fast Casual Executive Summit that kicked off Sunday night. The leaders spoke about growing off-premise business while enhancing the on-premise guest experience at the annual event hosted by Networld Media Group.

Eduardo Luz, chief brand and concept officer, and Rob Sopkin, SVP, chief development officer, at Panera Bread, shared the keynote at the Fast Casual Executive Summit that kicked off Sunday night. The leaders spoke about growing off-premise business while enhancing the on-premise guest experience at the annual event hosted by Networld Media Group.

Eduardo Luz, chief brand and concept officer, and Rob Sopkin, SVP, chief development officer, at Panera Bread, shared the keynote at the Fast Casual Executive Summit that kicked off Sunday night. The leaders spoke about growing off-premise business while enhancing the on-premise guest experience at the annual event hosted by Networld Media Group.