Author Spotlight
Mia Vogel
I’ve had the wind knocked out of me. I’m heartbroken and coping with the feeling of betrayal by an institution I’ve always been loyal to and thought (wrongly so) would never dare hurt me: Panera Bread Co.
One fateful day last month, Panera took their delicious baked potato soup off the menu — my go-to order since I was six. There was no warning, no chance for a final farewell, they just pulled the rug out from under me and took away my favorite comfort meal.
Before this tragedy, all that consoled me during cold, gray winter months was the promise of being snuggled up in a blanket, watching Christmas movies and enjoying a steaming bowl of Panera baked potato soup. With winter little over a month away, I’m left without the only meal that can help me through the dark days ahead.
This isn’t an isolated incident. My relationship with the restaurant chain has been growing increasingly toxic ever since they discontinued their specialty cream cheese. Then they came for my Mediterranean salad, but now, they’ve gone one step too far — they’ve taken away my baked potato soup.
This is my breaking point.
Friends and family have attempted to console me with the assurance that their mac and cheese is “just as good” or the broccoli cheddar “has always been the best soup anyways.” Both of these so-called comforts are travesties. The mac and cheese is good for three bites before a ferocious stomachache rears its ugly head and I’m morally opposed to the broccoli cheddar because vegetables and cheese are not to be combined.
Save your apologies and let me grieve the loss of my soup — as we all know, time is the only thing that can heal a broken heart.
As for Panera, they’ve shown me more than enough times that they have no regard for our relationship and I refuse to frantically search the menu for something to eat, and say “you can go next” to the grade schoolers behind me again.
Panera, listen to your customers and stop taking away our favorite menu items or else the only people sitting in your restaurant will be tutors and the elderly.
This is the greatest article I’ve read this year, it’s 2024 and I could swear my mom wrote this herself. She still checks the menu to this day to see if they’ll bring it back and is disappointed every time
A sad sad day indeed. Much like the originator of this post, it’s just not worth it any more. I was just battling bronchitis and placed an order for chicken noodle soup since my beloved potato soup was gone and needed something warm and soothing! NEVER again! It was so salty I couldn’t even finish it! A can of Progresso at less than half the price would have been better! Saying goodbye to Panera!
We always enjoyed. Paneras Baked Potato Soup. We were stunned when they discontinued it. We don’t go to or pick up from Paneras anymore. The current soups just aren’t the same. Please bring back the Baked Potato Soup.
Panera has an obligation to find the nearest thing to their superb Baked Potato Soup. Try Try Try! Panera would be a winner again.
Since being purchased by Covelli, Panera is a waste of time and definitely money. So much for so little and when you combine that with taking away many if not close to all favorites; thousands of people ordered regularly. It’s just all a mess. They should just shut the doors. Hardly anyone goes there anymore. Corporate greed is never good for sustainability. There is no longer single item that makes me want to go. NOW most of their bakery items come in frozen and are just baked. No more .99 bakery item. It’s now half price. They tried the sip club but that’s going to backfire when people realize it’s being drafted and they forgot to cancel the subscription.
Please return my Baked Potato Soup to the menu! Find another Company that makes it (Good Potato Soup) and make your customers happy or loose them! Show some customer concern.
To Mia (and everybody else grieving here): Y’all know that ALDI stores sell Panera Potato Soup. Right??!
So does Food Lion
walmart still sells it
They disappointed me years ago when they changed their chicken and wild rice recipe. It was so good. No idea why they changed the recipe to something less appetizing. It’s okay but before they changed the recipe I craved that stuff. Now I can live without it.
Olive Garden through the years has removed my favorite items to the point that I don’t eat there anymore. It started with Mediterranean garlic shrimp and they have since removed many more menu items. There is nothing I like on the menu anymore. Why not stick with the things customers like?
Panera has disappointed me time and time again. They took away my favorite raspberry cookie, the service went downhill, and now the only thing that kept me going back is gone. Farewell Panera.
First my chipotle chicken sandwich years ago, now this?! I’m going to crawl in a hole. What is life without my precious baked potato soup!
Would love to see the baked potato soup return to Panera’s menu. The soup you buy at the grocery store is not as good!
From an associate: the company we got the soup from went out of business. It wasn’t our choice to remove it from the menu.
It was such a stupid move to take off Panera Baked potato soup!! No need to go there for soup any longer I’ve eaten and craved it for many many years since it began. Why ???
Who decided to take this one soup I And thousands of others who have responded loved.. .you’ve got all kinds of strange soups and lots of folks who love this down to earth soup we’ve eaten all our lives weve grown up on it.. how about reconsidering to leave this traditional soup since most everything else you offer is gourmet…So looks like others in our town wont choose to come there as much and we are the ones who have been going weekly and more all these years since you opened your doors in this and surrounding areas just to get the potato soup…We are the ones who have supported you all these years and now you cant leave a much loved item on your menu that helped get you established in our town and have kept it…Sure hope you will listen to all of us asking you to put this very favorite soup back on your menu in the restaurant…it doesn’t taste right from the grocery stores, etc. And that’s something folks want to go out to eat at your place as well as the other items you serve.. PLEASE PUT IN BACK….
Bring back my potato soup or I’ll go somewhere else.
I just found out — I had a dental issue today and need to eat soft food so I did what I always do — get potato soup from Panera. I, like everyone here, am heartbroken. I am told it is seasonal although December seems to be a cold month and good for soup so I’m not sure what season is better. Panera — the stuff in the grocery store is not the same!!!!! Bring back our soup!!!!
We “elders” may not be there either as baked potato soup was one of our favorites. We routinely purchased the containers at Kroger and heated it up at home. Time to find another go to restaurant.
I want the potato soup back Too. It was one of the only things my husband could eat during chemo..BRING IT BACK PLEASE
Well, did you even try to find it somewhere else, or did you just say “too bad” about your customers?
Guess no one else knows how to make potato soup.
Dear Panera person, I understand. The vendor that was producing our frozen mashed potatoes went out of business. They are a favorite at Trader Joe’s, and none for the holidays.m Sad,
As an employee of Panera Bread, the company that we order the potato soup from closed so they brought back the chicken and wild rice soup which is another favorite among the customers. So there was not much Panera could do.
Of course it’s gone it is one of my top two soups, what the the hell