Wichita's Paneras candidates for drive-throughs

Drive through bagels? Brilliant.I don’t often get an occasion to drive to Derby, but this might just change that.

I recently found out — thanks to my observant deskmate Annie Calovich –that the year-old Panera at 1500 N. Rock Road in Derby has a drive-through. Panera is one of those restaurants I’ve always thought needs a drive-through, along with Chipotle.

Derby’s drive-through was the first in Kansas and one of the first in the country. Managers say it has worked out well and made the restaurant pretty popular.

The news made me wonder of any Wichita Paneras were candidates for drive-throughs, and Eric Cole, the vice president of operations for the group that runs our local stores, said they were. Though he doesn’t have details or dates to share, he said that owners were “working on doing some retros in the Wichita market to make some stores in to drive-throughs.”

I’ll keep you updated when I found out more.

Now, let’s work on Chipotle.

This story was originally published July 10, 2013 at 10:58 AM with the headline "Wichita's Paneras candidates for drive-throughs."