Reader Delia forwarded me this email from Panera Bread:
Thank you for contacting us at Panera Bread. We’re sorry for the delay in responding to your email. We’re experiencing a large increase in customer comments.
Our Santa Barbara, California bakery-café (#3183) at State Street @ La Cumbre, 93110 is scheduled to open mid January of next year. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
Jamie
Customer Comment Coordinator
That’s funny because just a few days ago my husband and I were over there and peaked in the windows to see what the progress was and the store was gutted and empty with little signs of life. We were beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t happening, so it’s good news to hear its still coming.
Oh man, it was supposed to open months ago! I hope it really opens in January!
Yay! I’ve been waiting for this restaurant to open for months now.
If it helps keep you hopeful, the one in Camarillo went from a shell to a full on restaurant in like 4 weeks.
Yeah but in Camarillo you don’t have to deal with the crooked politicians and extortionists that make up the City of Santa Barbara building department. I know by their original timeline they should have been open by now, and I’m willing to bet the City of SB building department is to blame for the delay. In my years working in commercial property, I’ve learned that the City loves to screw with national chains on their plans, they keep coming up with changes that they want to the building plans, all in order to drum up more permit fees. Things got especially bad with the economic downturn, the City loves to come up with BS things for tenants/landlords to do all in the name of more fees to the City. People wonder why there aren’t more chains here, part of it is because SB as a City can’t support them, the other part of it is that SB has a notorious reputation as being one of the worst local governments to deal with and these companies don’t like to waste their time, they want to get in and get open for business.
If Panera says they’ll be open mid-January, bet on the beginning of March and thank the next building inspector you run into.
That area will get pretty crowded very quickly. Chipotle is going to take over Baja Fresh’s site next door.
ugh…seriously? Chipotle is awful.
YEAH!!!!! Love it!
I wouldn’t hold my breath for January. I also contacted Panera about the opening date around the same time that Delia did, and a different rep told me “late January or early February”. I’ll be happy if it opens sometime in the first quarter of 2012
Please don’t tell me that Chipotle is going to replace Baja Fresh. I work in La Cumbre Plaza and we all adore Baja Fresh.
Chipotle! Yes!
I work for Panera, and the hiring process for Santa Barbara has begun, and the store will be openin the first week of March.
HECK YES!!! Can’t wait to get some great food! I used to work for Panera for 3 1/2 years. But I wouldn’t want to work there again. I just want the food