The 48-Year-Old Bakery Cafe Chain Many Customers Have Forgotten About

While you may be partial to your local bakery, bakery chains shouldn't be discounted. Most of them offer consistently good, budget-friendly bread, pastries, breakfast and lunch menus, not to mention decent coffee. Many of these chains have long tenures that speak to their popularity. However, the 48-year old bakery cafe chain many customers may have forgotten about is Au Bon Pain.

Au Bon Pain got its start in 1976 in Boston's famous Faneuil Hall, a retail market that's also home to Quincy Market, one of the best food halls in the U.S. The French baking equipment manufacturer Pavailler was showcasing its high-end French ovens by having French bakers make pastries in them, selling them to the masses to promote the sale of ovens. Lured by the intoxicating smell of freshly baked bread and pastries, venture capitalist Louis Kane ended up buying and reimagining the company not as a baking equipment seller but as a bakery and cafe. Au Bon Pain locations began popping up in different states, growing in popularity during the 90s and early 2000s. 

In 2017, Panera Bread acquired Au Bon Pain and redirected the chain's locations from shopping centers and food halls to airports, train stations, and hospital cafes. This strategic shift has effectively removed it from former customers' radars. Ironically, it was Au Bon Pain that first acquired Panera, then Saint Louis Bread Company, in 1991 after going public.

Many customers in the U.S. may have forgotten about Au Bon Pain if they aren't at an airport or hospital, but we'd still consider the chain one of the best bakery chains in the U.S. 

We aren't the only ones, as various Reddit threads lament the closing of their local Au Bon Pain location. One Reddit thread simply asked "Remember Au Bon Pain?" with customers chiming in about how good the croissants, coffees, and wraps were. "I used to love going to the Au Bon Pain in Harvard Square," said one Redditor. " They made the best hot jalapeño cheese bread...It was a very popular place. Sometimes you couldn't find a seat." Another veteran customer wrote "I miss Au Bon Pain anywhere...it wasn't as expensive as Panera is now; their successor." In fact, one Redditor lamented that many Au Bon Pain locations had been converted into Panera bakeries. While Panera has plenty of delicious pastries, soups, and sandwiches of its own, nostalgic customers aren't happy about the switch.

Panera's acquisition may have reduced locations to hospitals and transit centers in 11 states, Au Bon Pain is still an airport staple. Students and business lunches are no longer the primary demographic but you can always grab a pastry, coffee, or sandwich as you walk from gate to gate. Plus, according to Au Bon Pain's website, it's an international success with hundreds of Au Bon Pain bakeries around the world, including 80 in Thailand.