ST. LOUIS – It's been in St. Louis since 1987, but a lot has changed in 27 years at Saint Louis Bread Company, including its name.
This week's Hey Heidi question comes from Lisa Goff of Mascoutah, who wants to know why the café and bakery is called Saint Louis Bread Company here, but Panera Bread everywhere else.
The sweet story begins in 1987 inside a Kirkwood building.
"We served breads, we served sandwiches, not many salads, not many soups it was just a small sandwich shop," said Don Hutcheson, vice president of operations.
It was a small shop known as Saint Louis Bread Company.
"Over the next six years they opened about 20 locations in St. Louis and throughout the Midwest," said Hutcheson.
And then in the early 1990s Saint Louis Bread Company was bought out.
"Well, when we started to expand in other cities like Chicago and Detroit the whole Saint Louis Bread Company thing didn't work, so at that time we changed the name to Panera everywhere else outside of St. Louis and kept Saint Louis Bread Company here," said Hutcheson.
They continued to call it Saint Louis Bread Company here because of the history and heritage.
"It's interesting you'll see social media posts where people say I know I'm back in St. Louis when the sign says Saint Louis Bread Company," said Hutcheson.
It's a sign you can see when you hit Wentzville out west or Shiloh to the east.
"And then down toward Festus is the southern part of Saint Louis Bread Company and up north toward Florissant is the northern boundary," said Hutcheson.
The menus are the same under both names, and these days that menu includes a lot more options. You can even order and pay from your smart phone now.
So a few things have changed, but they still bake bread like they did back in 1987. They just bake a lot more of it.
"We employ over 6,000 bakers across the United States," said Hutcheson. "They bake 250 million bagels a year." They also make 50 million baguettes a year.
Saint Louis Bread Company just opened its first on-campus cafe inside the student center at Saint Louis University.
Next week's Hey Heidi will be Halloween-inspired. Rose Meyer who wants to know if there really is an underground passageway from the haunted Lemp Mansion to the old Lemp Brewery. Heidi will take you on a tour Thursday, Oct. 30 on "Today in St. Louis."