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Panera Bread has announced the nationwide rollout of its autumn seasonal menu across company-operated and franchise locations, effective 2 September 2026.

The seasonal update features the launch of Three-Cheese Lasagna Soup alongside the return of established autumn soup favourites, dual-variety Ciabatta Dippers engineered for soup pairing, and a dessert lineup featuring a new PB&J Cookie and Cinnamon Croissant Bites.

The menu drop highlights Panera's strategy of combining seasonal limited-time offerings (LTOs) with soup-and-sandwich bundling mechanics to drive guest frequency, basket size, and daypart traffic across lunch and dinner.

Seasonal Soups and Broth Formulations

A central pillar of the autumn launch is an expanded soup selection, designed around hearty pasta and seasonal squash bases.

The featured autumn soup platform includes:

🍲 Three-Cheese Lasagna Soup: An all-new seasonal soup combining Italian-style sausage, lasagna ribbon pasta, and parmesan cheese in a rich ricotta-tomato broth, finished with an asiago cheese topping.

🥔 Rustic Baked Potato Soup: A returning comfort staple featuring homestyle-cut potatoes, bacon, and chives in a seasoned creamy broth topped with additional bacon.

🎃 Autumn Squash Soup: A seasonal guest favourite blending butternut squash and pumpkin simmered in vegetable broth with honey, cinnamon, a touch of curry, sweet cream, and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Soup Pairing and Warm Sandwich Additions

To capture cross-category basket additions and elevate meal combos, Panera is reintroducing its Ciabatta Dippers, designed specifically to complement its soup portfolio.

The returning sandwich platform features two distinct varieties:

🥖 French Ciabatta Dipper: A warm, artisan ciabatta sandwich build engineered for broth and soup dipping.

🥪 Chicken Pesto Ciabatta Dipper: Combines tender chicken and basil pesto on toasted ciabatta, formatted for dipping.

These items join Panera's core warm sandwich portfolio, including the Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt, Toasted Italiano, and Chicken Bacon Rancher.

Nostalgic Sweet Bakery and Breakfast Items

In the bakery cabinet, the brand is introducing sweet items engineered around familiar childhood flavour profiles and signature toppings:

🥜 PB&J Cookie: A soft peanut butter cookie filled with grape jelly and dusted with powdered sugar.

🥐 Cinnamon Croissant Bites: Mini croissants baked with sweet cinnamon crunch topping and served with a side of icing.

🥯 Chocolate Chip Bagel: The return of the brand's chocolate-studded breakfast bagel staple.

🥗 Harvest Medley Salad: A seasonal salad base of mixed greens and arugula tossed with roasted pumpkin seeds, mandarin oranges, and crisp beet strips.

Scott Uehlein, Vice President of Culinary at Panera Bread, stated that the seasonal menu focuses on delivering warm comfort, nostalgia, and distinct autumn flavours, pairing hearty hot entrées with familiar bakery traditions to serve diverse dining occasions.

Availablity

The autumn menu lineup will commence nationwide commercial distribution across Panera Bread bakery-cafes starting 2 September 2026.

Menu items will be available across all primary ordering channels, including dine-in, drive-thru, delivery, and Rapid Pick-Up®, integrated alongside personalised rewards and points accumulation through the MyPanera loyalty programme.