Panera Bread Outlines Expansion Plans

Panera Bread wants to make some additions and we're not just talking soup or salad.

The bakery-cafe chain on Jericho Turnpike is hoping to add more than 50 new seats to the store that opened doors last July. They  outlined their plans at a public hearing before the Oyster Bay Town Board, Tuesday.

"We have 74 seats right now," said Dan Baker, who represented Panera at the hearing. "The ultimate goal is to have 122 seats, 12 of which will be in a small patio in the front."

Panera had to apply for a special use permit with the town in order to be allowed to have an occupancy of more than 76 customers.

The board will take a vote at a future meeting, but nobody appeared at the hearing to oppose the application.

Supervisor John Venditto signaled that the application will likely be successful, calling  Panera, "a welcome tenant in the town of Oyster Bay."

"I'm not aware of any problems with the operation,"  he said.