The Marching Virginians Habitat for Humanity House

At Panera Bread, we believe the universal spirit of bread is giving. Therefore, we do what we can to help others in need. We take a great amount of pride partnering with local community events! This past January we partnered with the Marching Virginians to help raise funds for their Habitat for Humanity house. During the opening events of our Blacksburg cafe, we collected donations for the Marching Virginians. Blue Ridge Bread decided to match the donations in full! We ended up donating $6000 to the Marching Virginians Habitat for Humanity House.

The house began to be built this spring. In just two short weeks the Marching Virginians finished hammering the last nail. This past Saturday, the house was dedicated to a late band member, Ryan "Stack" Clark. Panera Bread was honored during this heartfelt dedication. Pictured below is a picture of band director, Dave McKee, myself, and Michael Boswell, our Regional Catering Manager. I can not express how honored and truly proud Panera Bread is to be a part of this project!

Free Samples- Thursday June 11th!

Love Summer? We'll we do too! So to celebrate, this Thursday, June 11th we are offering free samples of our summer products at all our locations. Come out and sample a taste of summer.

Celebration of Summer!

Starting tomorrow, June 4th, we are introducing new summer inspired salads.

Our Strawberry Poppyseed salad is inspired by the season's freshest ingredients. It includes fresh romaine lettuce, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, pineapple tidbits, Mandarin oranges, toasted whole pecans, and our fat-free poppyseed dressing. It is one of my personal favorites!

We are also introducing our new Chopped Cobb salad. It includes all-natural black pepper mustard chicken, romaine lettuce, Applewood-smoked bacon, Gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and tossed with a herb vinaigrette dressing. The Chopped Cobb salad is smokey, tangy, and hearty!

Stop by your local bakery-cafe to try one of these salads today!

Via Panera Catering Coordinator Meeting

Did you know... WE CATER!!! Panera Bread has an excellent catering department called Via Panera ! In every cafe we have a dedicated catering coordinator who is there to serve all your catering needs! Panera Bread offers a wide variety of breakfast and lunch assortments that are easy and affordable. Our catering packages are great for office meetings, school events, reunions, tail gating, or just a wonderful lunch for a picnic in the park.

Our catering department is the convenient and healthy choice for a meeting of five or a conference of five-hundred. Our breads are artisan quality and baked fresh every day, our meats are free of hormones and antibiotics, and our fruit and vegetable cut fresh every morning. In fact, Panera was recently voted one of the healthiest restaurants by Health magazine. Our menu gives you a variety of options (for breakfast, lunch or dinner!) and can be customized to any specifications.


On Wednesday, May 27th all Blue Ridge Bread’s Catering Coordinators gathered for their monthly meeting! The meeting was lead by the Senior Via Panera Catering Coordinators- Mark Croy of the Valley Region, and Michael Boswell of the Mountain Region. Check out these pictures of the bunch! They are a good looking crew! Next time you are in the cafe- don't forget to grab a catering menu!

New Store Opening, Memphis Tennessee

Our sister franchise, Delta Dough has opened a new bakery-café in the Laurelwood Shopping Center in Mid-Town Memphis. To celebrate the opening, we hosted a VIP Party for 500 of the movers and shakers in Memphis. We invited them to be the first to taste our freshly baked breads, pastries, soups, salads, and more! For all our opening events, we raised money for the Memphis Zoo. Panera Bread matched all the proceeds that were donated. We ended up donating $1200 to the Zoo! To celebrate our partnership we took a very “wild” approach to our VIP party. Check out the pictures of the bread animals!

Associate of the Month: Anthony Carchietta

At Panera Bread, we believe the heart of our business is our associates. We always try our best to make sure our associates are happy. Let’s face it… happy associates = happy customers! Therefore we want to take the time to recognize one of our rising stars; Mr. Anthony Carchietta.
Anthony is an associate trainer at our Winchester café. He started working at the café about five and a half months ago. Anthony goes above and beyond to make sure every single customer feels special. Often positioned in the dining room, Anthony can be found gabbing with the customers as if he has known them for years. In my recent visit to the Winchester café, I had the privilege to sit down and get to know Anthony a little better. Below I have outlined my conversation with Mr. Carchietta.

Who is your favorite customer?
“I really enjoy getting to know all of our customers, but I’d have to say Peter & Shelia are two of my favorites. Sometimes Peter will even bring his parrots to our patio to show us!”

What is your lifelong dream?
“I would like to become a History teacher.”

What do you do in your spare time?
“I enjoy reading…mostly non-fictional History books. Currently I am reading a book by Howard Zinn.”

What is your favorite food at Panera Bread?
“I love the Tomato Mozzarella Panini!”

What’s your life mantra?
“Two things, I would say;
1- Treat others with kindness.
2- Live everyday like it’s your last.”

If you had a theme song, what would it be?
“Unknown Soldier by Breaking Benjamin.”

Anthony, what can we say? We are thrilled to have such a positive, upbeat, personable guy like you work for Panera Bread!

Harrisonburg Panera Bread Management Team

General Manager Spotlight: Christie Carrier

Christie Carrier is the General Manager of the Harrisonburg Panera Bread bakery-café. She started with Panera Bread as an associate about five years ago. Since then, Christie has quickly moved up the ranks to become an assistant manager in Harrisonburg. She later became a General Manager and opened the Hollymead Panera Bread in Charlottesville, VA. Christie later became the opening General Manager of both the Valley View café in Roanoke, and the Christiansburg café. Recently, Christie has returned to Harrisonburg to lead the team to success.

When Christie is not busy at work, she enjoys spending time with her 17 year old daughter Sydney, and her crazy 4 year old Jack Russell Terrier, Gracie. She also enjoys reading, and baking.

To get to know Christie better, I asked her extremely random questions about herself. Read on below to find out more about Christie Carrier!

Apple juice or orange juice?
OJ

Are you a morning or night person?
Morning Person!

Which do you prefer, sweet or salty foods?
Both- I love white chocolate pretzels

What was your favorite childhood television program?
Droopy- Hanna Barbera

Are you a collector of anything?
Snoopy stuff

If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Her dog Gracie- she has spa days (lucky pup)!

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Speed- I would be able to get things faster!! I would zip through my chores, and run around with Gracie!

What is usually your first thought when you wake up?
The Harrisonburg Café!

What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?
The Café- she usually calls to make sure closing has gone well!

What's your favorite color?
Evergreen & Burgundy! I love dark, bold, rich colors.

What's your favorite animal?
Sea Turtles!!!

Do you believe in ghosts?
No, but I believe there are forces in the universe that we can’t explain.

You're given 1 million dollars, what do you spend it on?
I would give some to the SPCA, pay for my daughter’s college education, and take a long vacation!!

Have any bad habits?
I buy too many toys for Gracie, and my car is a mess.

List 3 of your best personality traits:
I am extremely generous.
I am very straight forward.
I am a dedicated, hard worker.

List 3 of your worst personality traits:
I am too generous.
I may be TOO dedicated to work.
At times, I may be too straight forward.

Are you mostly a clean or messy person?
Clean- except my car.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Italy

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Japan

Name 1 thing you miss about being a kid:
I miss not having to pay bills!

Name 1 thing you love about being an adult:
I like being able to do anything I want- like eat ice cream at any point in the day.

Have any hidden talents?
I’m a great cake decorator.

What would be your dream job?
I would love to be a pastry chef.

If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?
1- I would like to be well off financially, and not have to worry about work/paying bills.
2- I would like my daughter to live a long, happy, fulfilled life.
3- I would like to be content, happy, and fulfilled.

Name 1 thing not many people know about you:
I have a tattoo!

Our Recipe

At Panera Bread, we make our finest sourdough with only four main ingredients; starter, flour, water, and salt. Blue Ridge Bread’s infrastructure operates similarly. We have four main players that make up our franchise group’s upper management.

As you know (if you read below) our starter is Rick Postle. He is the owner and operator of Blue Ridge Bread. Our franchise group is divided into two regions; Mountain and Valley. The Mountain Region is home to 6 cafes stretching from the South end of Charlottesvilleto Blacksburg, VA. The Valley region is home to 5 cafes stretching from the Northern edge of Charlottesville, VA to Ranson, WV.

Russell Kidd is the managing partner of Blue Ridge Bread’s Mountain Region. Russell Kidd is Blue Ridge Bread’s flour. Like flour, Russell can take on many forms. Russell will jump in to take on just about any task. He leads his cafes to success by being clear and concise with his expectations. In his spare time Russell enjoys fishing, hunting, and building his future log home.

Peter Davis is the Managing Partner of Blue Ridge Bread’s Valley Region. Peter is the water in our organization. Water is needed to bake just about anything. Similarly Peter is needed to lead his cafes to success. Peter is an excellent public speaker. He is extremely successful at motivating his team to complete any task. In his spare time, Peter enjoys working out with his lovely wife, Linda. He also enjoys spending time barbecuing with his two daughters.

Adam Jackson, the Director of Finance and Development is the fourth key player in Blue Ridge Bread. He is our salt. Like salt, Adam has a subtle way of making a huge difference. He skillfully heads up the development of our new stores as well as oversees Blue Ridge Bread’s finances. Adam has also taken on a new role as Director of Operations for our sister Franchise, Delta Dough. Delta Dough owns and operates all the Panera Bread Bakery Cafés in the Greater Memphis region. In his spare time, Adam enjoys spending time with his wife, Kelly and one year old daughter, Lena.

Rick Postle, Our "Starter"

It is commonly known that in order to make great sourdough bread, a “starter” is required. By making a "starter" in which wild yeast can grow, the sourdough baker can raise bread naturally. Much like the bread starter which gives rise to the dough, Rick Postle played a similar role when starting Blue Ridge Bread.

Rick Postle started his career flipping hamburgers with Wendy’s. Because of his constant positive attitude and upbeat personality, he was spotted by upper management. He quickly moved up the ranks to become President of North America with Wendy’s. He later moved to Checkers, I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, KFC, then in the early 1990s he became the President and CEO of the St. Louis Bread company. Rick grew the St. Louis Bread company from 25 cafes to 500! He then changed the name from “St. Louis Bread Company” to “Panera Bread.” Pan- is the Latin term for bread, era- meaning a span of time. Therefore, the word Panera can be loosely translated to “bread time” or “time for bread.”

In 2002, Rick became a joint venture partner with Panera Bread. He developed 40 cafes throughout Virginia and Pennsylvania. He 2004 he sold the cafes back to the company, and became a franchisee. That is when Blue Ridge Bread was born.

Blue Ridge Bread is the franchise group that owns and operates 11 Panera Bread bakery-cafes throughout the Blue Ridge mountain region in Virginia. Our bakery cafes include the Panera locations in Christiansburg, Blacksburg, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Warrenton, Winchester and Ranson, WV.

Rick Postle also owns Delta Dough, the franchise group that will be developing Panera Bread bakery-cafes in the greater Memphis region.