Panera Bread to open in the Vista in July

Panera Bread expects to open its newest Columbia restaurant by July 6 in the 5,000 square feet former Bluestein’s building at Park and Gervais streets in the city’s trendy Vista entertainment district, the company said Monday.

The restaurant, which will have a spacious dining area but no drive-through, specializes in daily fresh-baked breads and pastries and is in the final stages of hiring and training the 50 to 60 employees needed to operate the business, owning partner Bo Gdovin said.

“Usually we’re building drive-throughs at this point in time, but if we really, really believe in the site, then we will do it without a drive-through,” Gdovin said. “Obviously we really believe in this site.

“We’ve wanted to go in the Vista really for the past 10 years, but to get there, we really hadn’t found something we think is going to suit us,” he said. “We thought this was it.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 1:02 PM.