Five days after closing the previous Panera Bread restaurant at Northgate Mall, a new Panera Bread with drive-through pickup service opens Thursday on another outparcel at Northgate only a quarter of a mile away.
The newest version of the Hixson Panera Bread, which is owned by CSC Investments in Cleveland, Tennessee, opens in a 4,000-square-foot commercial space leased from developer Bassam Issa.
The new restaurant is located near the Outback Steakhouse and next to a new Buddy’s bar-b-q that is in the same complex build by Issa.
Unlike the previous 4,478-square-foot Panera Bread site built in 2001, the new restaurant includes a drive-through window for pickup service, which has grown steadily during the pandemic.
In 2019, Issa acquired the former Firestone tire store, which shut down in 2017, and has spent the past couple of years reshaping the 3-acre lot near Highway 153 and Hixson Pike into a commercial complex for three new restaurants. Issa started developing the replacement site for Panera Bread to add drive-through service even before the COVID-19 pandemic boosted restaurant pickup service due to fears about the virus spreading in dining rooms.