Panera Bread

I came here on sunday afternoon, its full of students here.

You either love Panera or you don't. This review is about the location. This Panera is excellent for studying. Besides the plentiful seating and unlimited free wifi (both contingent on the time of day), it's proximity to the "Loop U" and the HWL contributes to the studious ambience. A final note, the Chipotle Chicken Panini is amazing.

Dear marketing "gurus" at Panera corporate: you are being stupid.  

Even your very nice employees agree, when you load up the counter space with your monstrous displays and crappy ads, you leave literally no room for me to receive the very food and drinks I came to buy from you.  

Seriously, the person working the register has to lunge over a barricade of baskets and signs to hand things to customers, placing the cups on stacks of cellophane brownies and balancing plates mid-air because every square-inch of would-be counter space is occupied by something telling me to do what I'm already doing: buy your crap.   Enough already.

Plus, you look like a cheapskate for gracing the top of your "orange cranberry" muffin with a mere sprinkling of cranberry.  Boo.