The Panera Bread Sourdough Fact We Were Honestly Shocked To Learn

While there are many things Panera is known for, including inspiring free restaurant wifi and its contentious charged lemonades, Panera would not be what it is today without its bread. Not only is bread in the chain's title and logo, but in almost all of Panera Bread's menu items from sandwiches to bread bowls to pastries. Panera even released a baguette-inspired handbag, leaning into its bread-centric brand even further.

No bread business is complete without tangy, chewy sourdough, and Panera Bread is no exception. Found in its bread bowls, pull-apart garlic cheese bread, or in a purchasable loaf, Panera's sourdough has been a part of its brand since the very beginning. Its sourdough is part of their history that lives on today, literally, because Panera uses the same sourdough starter it began with in St. Louis. That same resilient sourdough strand is still what Panera uses today, more than 37 years later.

Panera's sourdough starter is older than its name. This is because Panera was first called the St. Louis Bread Company when starting out, actually located in St. Louis County, specifically Kirkwood. The company's goal was to provide fresh bread for all, starting with its sourdough. The founders, Ken and Linda Rosenthal, made everything on site, sourdough included, opposing the industrialization of bread that had begun with companies like Wonder Bread. Its sourdough bread bowls were a staple since early on, along with the photographs of bread that adorned the walls.

It was making bread in-house with homemade dough and sourdough starter that added to the authenticity of Panera's brand. It was a successful practice, growing to over 20 units within its first six years. Sourdough wasn't just part of Panera's brand through its baking, but also its logo, which depicts a woman holding a sourdough loaf. The woman in the Panera logo is known as Mother Bread, which represents the process of making sourdough. The strain sourdough batches originate from is known as the "mother." Just as Mother Bread carries a fresh loaf, the mother sourdough starter brings forth each new loaf into Panera's restaurants.

While Panera has undergone many changes over the years including rebranding its name, discontinuing Panera menu items never to be seen again, and switching between being a public and private company, two things that have remained throughout Panera's history are its sourdough and logo. Both mothers of the company, the logo and sourdough starter embody Panera's mission: "A loaf of bread in every arm." Sourdough has been at the start of the company since the beginning and still is today.

Panera now has over 2,000 units worldwide and is so widespread in the U.S. that there are only two states that don't have a Panera. Even though Panera has a different owner and menu, all locations use the same sourdough, which helps the authenticity of the brand despite being a franchised fast-casual restaurant. In a landscape where almost all fast food restaurants look and feel the same, Panera continues to create a warm environment that extends to its sourdough, sticking by its mission statement.