Ken Rosenthal, the founder of Panera Bread’s Forerunner, dies at 81
He was 81.
His wife, Linda
Rosenthal, said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease. He was 81. His wife, Linda
Rosenthal, said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr. He was 81.
His wife, Linda
Rosenthal, said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.
In 1997, Rosenthal told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he never had a desire to run a bakery. After resisting for months, Mr. Rosenthal also visited the bakery.
Impressed by what he saw, he asked the owner, Roger Brunello, to teach him the secrets of sourdough. Over the next year, he trained with Mr. Brunello, and in October 1987 he opened the first Saint Louis Bread Company outlet in Kirkwood, a St. Louis suburb, with a menu featuring 10 types of bread (including sourdough in various shapes), a variety of croissants, danishes and muffins and some sandwiches.
“Roger helped him open the store and I said, ‘Roger, are you sure he knows how to bake?'” Ms. Rosenthal, who is known as Laya, recalled with a laugh in an interview.
She and her husband took the leap in part because competition from larger apparel stores was making their jobs more difficult.
“We had nothing to lose,” she said. “We gambled everything.” They sold Kenlyn’s shortly after opening the Saint Louis Bread Company, which became known locally as “Bread Co.”
Interviewed by a local television station six months after the opening, Mr. Rosenthal noted that the new business required him to awaken daily at 2 a.m.
“You have to change your life, you have to change the things that you do; I know people don’t call me after a certain hour,” he said. “You need to take naps every now and then.” But I’ve enjoyed it.”
He added, “Creating sourdough bread, for instance, is a slow, tedious process, and it’s difficult for a large commercial bakery to create that type of a product.”
Kenneth Jay Rosenthal was born on April 11, 1943, in St. Louis, to Herman Rosenthal, who owned a women’s apparel store, and Adis (Eckert) Rosenthal, a pattern maker. He married Linda Kramer, in 1969. He and his partner split in 1980; the partner took over the St. Charles shop, while Mr. Rosenthal, his wife, and the second store became Kenlyn’s. Rosenthal’s decision to switch from women’s clothing to baked goods was a wise one. From 1987 to 1993, he and his three partners (who joined him at different times) expanded the first cafe into a chain of 20 stores in Missouri and Atlanta.
After Mr. Rosenthal’s death, one of his partners, Doron Berger, told The Denver Post: “What we were doing at the time in St. Louis, there was no competition. Ken was a genius because he did not give up on his dream, even though everyone tried to discourage him from opening the first store. “It was a good time to sell,” Rosenthal told The Post-Dispatch. “We brought the company up to a 20 store organization, we needed external financing, and wanted to be able make the concept bigger.” Later that year, JAB bought Au Bon Pain, reuniting it with Panera.
Panera currently has 2,230 restaurants in the United States, making it the second-largest chain in the fast-casual restaurant category (after Chipotle Mexican Grill), according to Restaurant Business magazine.
Mr. Rosenthal worked for Au Bon Pain before becoming a Panera franchisee. He has lived in Scottsdale full-time since 2019, a year after selling the last of the Breads of World restaurants a year before. He has lived full-time in Scottsdale since 2019, a year after selling the last of the Breads of the World restaurants a year before.
“To have sold the company and come back as a franchisee — he loved it,” said Craig Flom, his son-in-law and a longtime Breads of the World executive.
In addition to his wife and his brother, Mr. Rosenthal is survived by two daughters, Carlye Flom and Kari Rosenthal; two sons, Eric and Scott; and 13 grandchildren.
Mr. Rosenthal described his operating style to The Post-Dispatch back in 1997. “When things get to be routine with me, I suppose I lose a little interest.
“I’m not a great operator. I’m better at being a pioneer than anything else.”
