Panera Bread Is Giving Away Free Bagels for Valentine’s Day. Here Are the Details

Panera Bread knows that different people celebrate Valentine’s Day in different ways. And for its customers, nothing says “love” like free bagels. Let’s take a look at the details of this latest offering.

Panera Bread & the Free Bagels

QSR reports that Panera Bread is conducting a countrywide Valentine’s Day Date campaign, inviting you and your BAE to come in for a lunch date and try its new Asiago Bagel Stack sandwiches. You’ll get one for yourself and one free for your BAE. The BAE offer is available on Feb. 13 and 14 with code BAEGEL.

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Panera’s new Asiago Bagel Stack sandwiches mix the cheesy flavor of the company’s famous Asiago Bagel with a variety of robust, satisfying flavors for a terrific and filling lunch or dinner. The Asiago Bagel Stacks are available in three varieties: Chicken Roma, Spicy Steak, and Zesty Tuscan, all packed with flavor and stacked on an Asiago Bagel.

To make things even better, Panera is rebranding its bagels as BAEgels for the holiday. The chain will give away free heart-shaped Cinnamon Crunch BAEgels (Panera’s most popular bagel) this Valentine’s Day at certain cafés throughout New York City. The heart-shaped BAEgels will be offered in limited numbers on Feb. 13 and 14.

Asiago Bagels Are Behind the New Sandwich Offerings

Panera’s Asiago Cheese Bread has long been a popular flavor among the chain’s customers. The company’s renowned loaves and bagels are made from sourdough bread flavored with Asiago cheese. Today, that flavor is the centerpiece of three Asiago Bagel Stacks.

These sandwiches mix the cheesy flavor of Panera’s trademark Asiago Bagel with hearty ingredients suitable for lunch or dinner. The stacks are available for a limited time at cafes around the country, with prices starting at $7.99.

A news statement describes the three tasty options available to Panera customers: Chicken Roma, Spicy Steak, and Zesty Tuscan. Depending on which you choose, an assortment of fresh ingredients is sandwiched between two halves of a soft Asiago Cheese Bagel, including chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, arugula, steak, provolone, salsa verde, red onions, peppers, soppressata, and garlic aioli. These bagel stacks are Panera’s first lunch sandwiches designed exclusively for one of its bagels.

“Our Asiago bagel is a signature item that our guests have always loved for its rich, cheesy flavor, and we realized there was room to showcase it far beyond the breakfast menu as part of this new lineup,” said Mark Shambura, CMO for Panera Bread. “Our guests are going to love the bold, zesty flavors these new sandwiches offer, with a price that delivers great value for lunch or dinner.”

A 2011 Syracuse.com piece uncovered the origins of Panera’s Asiago Cheese Bagel. Panera’s cooks were not the only ones who inspired the flavor combination; a small bakery in Yorkville, near Utica, New York, also contributed. Scott Davis worked at Au Bon Pain in the mid-1990s, when it acquired Saint Louis Bread Co. Their first menu featured artisan bread with Asiago cheese.

Davis believed the salty and sweet flavors would be ideal in a bagel. “We wanted to build on the concept with a bagel, and so we tested it,” he told Syracuse.com at the time. “So, the first day, we baked the cheese in the bagel. But it was missing the essence of what made the bread so good, the caramelized cheese cooked on top.”

After experimenting with numerous variations of the recipe, Davis returned to New York and visited a bakery in Yorkville. He was apparently inspired when observing a baker make a bialy by making a small indentation in the center of the roll and topping it with onions and poppyseed. When he returned to St. Louis, he ordered his bakers to replicate the process for the still-in-development Asiago Cheese Bagel, which remains one of Panera’s most popular selections.