Brentwood Cafe

Brentwood Cafe is an Carolinian chain of bakery-café fast casual restaurants in Carolina, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Offerings include soups, salads, pasta, sandwiches, and bakery items. Since 2012, Brentwood Cafe has been owned by Panera Bread after Panera bought Brentwood. Panera has kept Brentwood as an upscale variant of their own cafe's and has rebranded several Panera stores in the Raleigh-Durham area to Brentwood Cafe after the buyout. Brentwood retains seperate offices from Panera which is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

History
Brentwood Cafe was founded by Keith Ashe in 1976 when he created a new cafe at the intersection of Brentwood Road and Capital Boulevard (N1) in Raleigh, North Carolina. By 1980, Ashe had expanded his chain with locations in downtown Raleigh, and North Raleigh. The chain was able to take advantage of the growth of North Raleigh and by 1985 had 24 stores in the city. By 1990, the chain had expanded throughout North Carolina. In 1991 the first Brentwood Cafe opened outside of North Carolina in Ashley, South Carolina. In 2001, the chain had stores throughout the east coast of Carolina, and with several stores in Alabama, Tennessee, and the Warsiene Islands. The company was noted as one of the fastest growing in Carolina by Forbes magazine in 2001.

In 2002, the chain opened it first store in the United States, in Washington D.C. Stores in Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and Philadelphia soon followed. The chain did not open into the New England market until 2010 due to fierce competition between Au Bon Pain and Panera Bread.

In 2009, the first Brentwood Cafe opened in Canada, in Toronto and Montreal. In 2010, the company expanded to Europe opening it's first European cafe in London.

In 2011, Panera Bread Company announced that they planned to buy Brentwood Cafe after the company began experiencing financial difficulties. On March 22, Adam Sharpdale, then CEO of Brentwood announced that the company planned to be bought by Panera Bread, but would still retain it's name and headquarters in Cary. He promised that Brentwood cafe's would not be rebranded in Carolina, but would not promise the same for those in the United States, Canada, and Svorije. The buyout was approved on September 16, by the Federal Board of Commerce and was finalized on January 2, 2012. On March 31st, 2012, Panera previewed a new logo which was similar to it's own but retained the traditional Brentwood Cafe font.

While Panera Bread has continued to support Brentwood Cafe as subsidiary of the company, mainly due to continuing menu and location differences, further integration between the two companies have led many to speculate that Panera plans on incorporating all Brentwood Cafe restaurants. Panera has denied this accusation, saying that Panera is leading Brentwood with it's clean food and community service minded business model, but the regional difference and Brentwood brand recognition has prevented the two companies from merging.

Nutrition
In June 2014, Panera/Brentwood unveiled its official Food Policy which detailed commitments to clean ingredients, transparency and a positive impact on the food system. This policy outlines the company's values, and sets a course for continuous improvement. Panera also made a commitment to remove artificial additives (colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives) on its 'No No List' from the food in its US bakery-cafes by the end of 2016. The new policy also will apply to Brentwood cafe's.

Menu breakdown
Brentwood stylizes themselves as a upscale "Bakery-Cafe" and offers a wide array of pastries and baked goods, such as croissants, bagels, cookies, scones, muffins and brownies. These, along with Brentwood's artisan breads, are typically baked before dawn by an on-staff baker. Some locations also participate in a program that donates their unsold baked goods to local charities after closing hours, in cooperation with a program that Panera set up. Aside from the bakery section, Brentwood has a regular menu for dine-in or takeout that is broken down into the following categories:


 * Sandwiches
 * Paninis
 * Pastas, Soups & More
 * Flatbreads
 * Salads
 * Sides
 * Brentwood Kids
 * Smoothies
 * Frozen Drinks
 * Iced Drinks
 * Coffee, Tea, and Lemonade
 * Espressos
 * Cappachinos
 * Lattes

Brentwood also has a selection of seasonal offerings, such as the Strawberry Poppy Seed Chicken salad offered during the summer season.

Panera announced the addition of more plant-based proteins, such as edamame and organic quinoa, to its menu on November 5, 2015. This means that Brentwood will also implement the same policy.

Community Outreach
Brentwood Cafe has begun to partner with local food banks and homeless shelters to donate items that are not sold by the end of the day. In 2015, Brentwood donated almost $70 Million in unsold goods. Brentwood also sent an estimated $15 Million in food to help those affected by Hurricane Matthew in eastern Carolina.

Lawsuits
In 2003, a local bakery in Raleigh, North Carolina said that Brentwood purposely lowered their prices and placed a cafe in the same shopping center to put them out of business. Once the company entered financial difficulties, Brentwood offered to buy them. Brentwood agreed to settle the anti-trust claims outside of court while admitting no wrong-doing.

In 2008, a discrimination lawsuit was filed after a man was fired after he admitted to his co-workers that he was gay. In the landmark case, the Supreme Court of Tennessee ruled that while the firing was not morally correct, there was no law present in Carolina or Tennessee that protects LGBT workers from being fired. Therefore the case was ruled in favor of Brentwood. The case sparked national outrage, with people encouraging others to boycott Brentwood Cafe. Brentwood announced that they had offered to re-hire the man with a significant raise but the offer was declined.

Internet Access
In 2004, Brentwood announced that they would offer free wifi in all of their stores in Carolina and the United States. Many locations restrict wi-fi usage to 45 minutes during peak-hours.