Panera Lovers Desperately Want One Sweet Item Back On The Menu

We here at The Takeout are very familiar with discontinued menu items at fast food and fast casual restaurant chains that we believe should still be available to purchase. While this sometimes is the case for items that have been unavailable for several decades, like Wendy's Country Fried Steak from the 1990s, in the case of Panera, the one item that people seem to miss the most was just discontinued a handful of years ago. The French Toast Bagel was an item available at the beloved fast-casual chain up until 2020 when, alongside a handful of other menu items like the Tuscan Chicken Sandwich and the maple Bacon Scrambled Egg Wrap, the baked good was discontinued amidst the pandemic.

At the time, many fans of the item had hoped that the sudden discontinuation would be temporary. However, five years after being made unavailable, the French Toast Bagel remains off the menu, much to the chagrin of Panera fans who have been dying to taste the sweet treat one more time. In fact, many have taken to Reddit to both reminisce and express frustration over the bygone menu item. "I loved the French toast bagels," one Redditor expressed, "especially as a breakfast sandwich with sausage and egg and cheese."

Now, while many have grown devastated that the French Toast Bagel — much like several other discontinued Panera items — will likely never be available again, others have found that Panera's alternatives have successfully filled the void left by the sweet treat. The most notable of these replacements is the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel, an item that provides a similarly sweet taste to the French Toast Bagel. In fact, some theorized that the existence of the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel is exactly why Panera decided to do away with the discontinued menu item, with one Redditor saying, "Panera always believed that if you like French toast you will eat [the] cinnamon crunch."

Meanwhile, another Redditor noted other ways to enjoy the discontinued bagel: making your own version of it at home. While there aren't many copycat recipes online that emulate Panera's specific version of the discontinued bakery item, there are a few ways to incorporate the French Toast Bagel's flavors, such as using maple sugar and syrup. "[The] French toast [bagel] had a swirl of dough with maple flavor in it," the Redditor reminded, "You could probably do a sweet bagel dough with vanilla and mix in some maple-flavored dough."