Journal sloppiness deserves no bread in their company
Leave a commentJuly 29, 2017 by jacklovelace
I am a big fan of the Wall Street Journal news quality, but an article today just bugged the shit out of me.
The story went on about this guy at Panera’s who basically created the fast casual dining experience. The story makes brief mention of St. Louis Bread Company being absorbed into Panera world.
Flashback.
In the late 80’s I can remember going to a St. Louis Bread Company in St. Louis.
It was a revelation. Fresh bread, sandwiches, salads, I just loved it.
This article irritated me enough to do some quick research and find that Ken Rosenthal invented and started St. Louis Bread Company in 1987 in St. Louis and had a half-dozen
outlets in a short time in St. Louis and they were successful. It morphed into Panera’s in the mid 90’s.
I can tell you from personal experience, going into St. Louis Bread Company in the late 80’s and going into my local Panera’s today and not a different experience.
So where in the hell is even the briefest mention of Rosenthal as the true creator of what is now the Panera empire in this article?
I wrote to the Journal in the comment space:
jacklovelace 
“In the late 80’s I discovered this wonderful bread and sandwiches and salads at a place called St. Louis Bread Company. While Mr. Schaich certainly ran with the concept, Ken Rosenthal started all this in 1987 in St. Louis and I can tell you from personal experience, the concept and actual eating experience has not changed hardly at all. Any impression that Schaich is some kind of originator here is misleading and the article should at least give a paragraph to Rosenthal.”
No one reading the article will ever know but as a journalist this kind of sloppiness just pissed me off.
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